


Let's Play

by AsreonInfusion



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: AU, BDSM themes, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Crack, Eventual ASGZC, Eventual Smut, M/M, Masturbation, Multi, Sex Games, Tentacle Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-02-25 16:23:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2628224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsreonInfusion/pseuds/AsreonInfusion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was one of those open secrets that no one was really quite sure if they believed or not. It was legendary. The finest artists, writers, and programmers from Silver Elite and Red Leather had come together and made… a game. Did it really exist? Yes. Yes, it did. And Cloud had a copy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kess/gifts).



> A present for Kess, who totally out of the blue asked me if I would play a game version of one of the favourite OT5 multichapter smut fics I've read. I would. Absolutely. And so would Cloud, apparently.
> 
> This thing has spawned into a whole miniature AU, including a sequel featuring the three First's reactions written by lilly-white, and podfic of the first couple of parts. You can find the bonuses on the masterlist on Tumblr; the link to that is <http://asreoninfusion.tumblr.com/post/136882343200/sex-game-verselets-play-masterlist>. Go check the other parts out!

It was one of those open secrets that no one was really quite sure if they believed or not. It was _legendary_.

A collaboration project between Silver Elite and Red Leather. (Keepers of Honour were too honourable, and the Study Group were excluded after making every line of the script sound as melodramatic and incomprehensible as Loveless.) The finest artists, writers, and programmers from the fan clubs had come together and made… a game.

Did it really exist?

Yes. Yes, it did. And Cloud had a copy. The rarest, most legendary piece of fan work on the planet, and Cloud had a copy.

His fingers were trembling as he slid the disc into the CD tray.

Cloud knew exactly what he wanted to do. He'd read every discussion and walkthrough on the net. The title screen popped up; new game. Difficulty setting; easy, medium, or hard? On easy you got to play as one the famous First Class SOLDIERs themselves. Medium gave an option of Second and Third Class characters.

But hard mode, that allowed you to create your own character. All social links were set to zero, and it was a tedious slog to get them up high enough to do anything fun with the game. But would it be worth it in the end?

Definitely.

Cloud made his selection and created a computerised avatar of himself.

He didn't care how long it took. He didn't even notice the time passing, not when his heart kept skipping every time his avatar self ran into one of his heroes in the hallway, or got to deliver something meaningless to their offices, or had an actual conversation with _Sephiroth_.

Well. A computerised Sephiroth. But apparently the writers had inside information from some high-ranking ShinRa employees. It was supposed to be very in character.

It got to three o'clock in the morning. Cloud was in nothing but his boxers, and the only light in the room was the dull blue pulse of the computer screen.

'Would you like to come back to our place?' computer-Genesis asked. Cloud could imagine the purr in that question. Sephiroth was there as well, and it was clear what the 'our' meant.

Yes. Threesome unlocked on his first try!

'Would you like to come back to our place?'

Cloud's hands were shaking as he hovered the mouse over his response options.

"Yes," he breathed.

His avatar was sat on the couch in their private apartment. Genesis was on one side of him and Sephiroth on the other. They were close enough together that their thighs were touching. Sephiroth's lips brushed against Cloud's ear as he leant over to whisper something.

Gaia, the art in this was so good.

'Yes,' Cloud clicked again, and then he was on their bed, and Genesis was kissing him, and Sephiroth's mouth was on his cock. Cloud let out an audible groan.

'How do you want it?' Sephiroth asked.

It took all of Cloud's self-control to click away from the screen, opening up the menu. He'd read the walkthroughs, after all. He'd taken the time to collect certain items available to make the game more… exciting. He scrolled through the selection of toys his character had available and transferred them over to the NPC inventory.

There. Now.

'How do you want it?'

"Hard," Cloud whispered. "Gods, Sephiroth, Genesis, give it to me _hard_."

That brought up another list.

Bondage, yes. Rough sex, yes. Vibrator, yes. Cock ring, yes. Nipple clamps, yes. Spreader bar, yes. Blindfold, yes.

He was pretty sure he'd ticked off practically every option available, but he didn't care.

'Fuck me.' His mouse hovered over the confirmation option.

"Fuck me," Cloud begged.

The computer whirred and the scene began to play.

Cloud's hand slid down into his boxers and he whimpered. It looked like him. The avatar he'd created, it looked so much like him. It looked like it was him tied up like that, ass in air, legs spread wide open as Genesis worked a thick dildo inside him. Like it was his mouth around Sephiroth's dick, his face getting fucked.

Cloud pinched his nipples, hard, as Genesis tightened the clamps onto his avatar. He tightened his fist around the base of his cock when Sephiroth slid the ring onto him.

(He didn't close his eyes when the blindfold went on. He couldn't bear to miss a second of this.)

The computer chair skidded across the room as Cloud stumbled out of it an over to his bed, never taking his eyes off the screen. He kicked his boxers off. He bent over on his knees, ass in the air, working two fingers deep inside himself as the SOLDIERs fucked him one after the other.

"Sephiroth," Cloud moaned. "Genesis, please."

He kept time with the animation, stroking over his aching erection.

'Come for me,' Sephiroth demanded.

Cloud was so willing to obey. His fingers pressed hard against that perfect spot inside him, sending sparks of pleasure and pain shooting straight to his cock. He jerked himself roughly and cried out, trembling as hit his peak.

The Cloud avatar on screen lay sprawled out across the rumpled covers, covered in red marks and bruises and thick streaks of come, used and ravished.

It looked so much like him, and Cloud groaned again, rubbing himself through the pleasurable aftershocks.

He was still panting hard as he returned to the computer. It was late, and he was tired, and he had so much delicious material for his fantasies already.

He would play some more tomorrow.

'Save game,' Cloud selected. One last image of Sephiroth and Genesis smiled out at him as the program shut down.

Cloud blew them a kiss and went to bed, buzzing happily.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **NB: I considered scrapping this chapter because I'm really not that happy with it at all, but a couple of people said they wanted it and also I'm too lazy to write any kind of replacement chapter to bridge the gap. So, I'm leaving it up. But feel free to skip this particular chapter if it's not doing it for you, and please don't judge the rest of the fic on it, lol. (Not that the fic was anything other than complete silliness and crack that I was completely making up as I went along/got Kess's prompts for anyway. >>;;;)**
> 
> Selfcest is one of those things that sounds great in theory, but is actually really, really confusing to write. So, please keep in mind that in this fic, 'Zackary' refers to the in-game computer version of Zack, and 'Zack' is the character avatar that Zack is in control of. The names are not interchangeable. Also, the sex scene is written as an actual sex scene, but it is just happening in the game. It got boring just describing what's happening on a computer screen all the time.
> 
> This part was written for Tumblr, as a continuation of an ask I received. You do need to have read the answer to the ask for this to make sense, so I shall post it here before we begin, for your convenience. (I have this habit of starting to answer asks normally, but then they morph into almost-fic style.)
> 
> Q: Would you tell me more headcanons for sex game verse?
> 
> A: Okay, let's talk about medium difficulty.
> 
> The medium difficulty starts you off playing as a Second or Third Class SOLDIER, so you've got already got a bit of a social link with the First Classes, and a lot more opportunity to run into them or work with them.
> 
> There's a few pre-set Second Class characters. You can choose one to play as, and the rest will populate the SOLDIER floor. They have basic social link dynamics as well, and you can even unlock some sex scenes for them. But no one bothers with it usually because hello, Sephiroth and Genesis and Angeal.
> 
> Cloud never paid any attention to those characters. He really should have. Because one of them? Yeah. One of them was Zack.
> 
> The same Zack who found out that he had a copy of the game and decided it would be the most hilarious thing for them to spend an evening playing through it and sharing a few beers, instead of just watching a movie or whatever like a normal person.
> 
> So Cloud is all, ~oh shit oh shit oh shit~. "Zack… you do know what this game is?" ~Please give me the CD back.~
> 
> (Of course Zack knew. He's been trying to get his hands on a copy for forever.)
> 
> Cloud tries to convince him to play on hard mode, because then Zack would probably get bored of it before he got to any of the juicy bits.
> 
> "No way, Cloudy, hard mode will take way too long! I'm a SOLDIER, I should get to play as a SOLDIER."
> 
> The menu pops up, and both their eyes widen.
> 
> "Whoa! I'm in the fucking game!"
> 
> "Oh my god, Zack…"
> 
> "That's totally meant to be me, look!" He clicks over onto the character and rotates the model around.
> 
> Cloud is slowly dying in the corner.
> 
> Zack decides that actually, he's got a better idea than playing as his Second Class pre-set. He goes back to hard mode and creates his own avatar of himself, and proceeds to spend hours levelling up… not so he can screw with any of the First Class, but so he can unlock a scene in which he gets to watch the two Zacks hump each other like bunnies on speed.
> 
> Because selfcest fuck yeah.
> 
> Cloud gets tired of being absolutely mortified and falls asleep on Zack's couch in the meantime.

Cloud was completely conked out with his limbs splayed haphazardly over Zack's couch, a few empty beer bottles on the floor next to him. Zack grinned as he glanced back at the scene. What a cutie.

A cutie who Zack was beginning to suspect wasn't anywhere near as innocent as he looked. He had a copy of the game, after all. And seemed to play it regularly, given how he was able to direct Zack in every aspect of how to build up his social links and level up quicker. And find some of those items, Gaia. How did such a sweet-faced backwater kid even know what that stuff was for?

Not that he wouldn't look fucking gorgeous in a thick leather collar, all spread out and tied in place, and wow, okay, Zack really needed to stop that train of thought.

He shifted his attention back to the game. He had  _plans_. But he was kinda glad that Cloud was asleep, because how did he explain that? Yeah, I want to see two computerised versions of myself get it on with each other, that sounds totally hot?

What. It did, though.

Zack directed his avatar self over to his pre-set game self, who was… standing around the common area of the SOLDIER floor doing squats. He'd heard that the game creators had inside information and that everything was super in-character, but that level of accuracy was pretty weird to see. Who the hell was their informant?

He opened up the actions menu. Ask out on date? Why not, Zack grinned. He could take himself out for a meal. Burgers all the way. His favourite burger joint was even listed as one of the options, all of which were real-life places in Midgar.

The burgers and a few beers made his social link with Zackary shoot right up. (The computer-controlled version of himself was Zackary, he'd decided. Both of them being Zack was going to get confusing otherwise.) Zack took a gulp of his own beer, feeling pleasantly buzzed.

'Wanna come back to my place?' Zackary asked.

"Hell yeah," Zack crowed.

The two identical characters made their way back to ShinRa HQ, and Zack suddenly became aware of an imminent dilemma. Did he want to fuck himself or get fucked by himself? He sniggered at the fact this was a question that even needed asking. Technology was wonderful.

He decided to go for the former option, since he got told to go fuck himself on a semi-regular basis. Usually by Genesis, if he was trying to hang out with Angeal and Zack was being obnoxiously loud in the same vicinity. Zack hoped he would appreciate the irony.

The apartment was decked out like any of the generic SOLDIER sleeping quarters, with just a few ineffective personal touches the designers had added in. Though Zack loved that his in-game counterpart had an adorable plush puppy displayed proudly on his bed.

He threw another glance back over his shoulder. Yep, Cloud was still sleeping soundly. Zack plugged his headphones in and opened up the inventory menu Cloud had told him about.

Zack relaxed on the bed, arms up behind his head and legs splayed casually. The mirrored doors of the built-in wardrobe to the side of the bed gave him a splendid view of himself and the action that was about to take place.

Zackary's weight dipped the mattress as his twin crawled up the length of his body. Zack pulled him down into a kiss.

He kept one eye open, watching their reflection. They made a pretty damn hot couple. Their mouths worked together, and Zack saw flashes of tongue as the kiss deepened into something messy and unhinged. He worked his hands beneath Zackary's SOLDIER top and slid it off over his head.

That seemed to prompt the removal of clothing, and before long they were naked and pressed against each other, and that even more fucking hot. Zack had always been pretty shameless about his body. You got used to the lack of privacy in the army, and anyway, he knew he looked good. He was pleased to find his other self was true to life.

He kept kissing himself as they tangled together.

Calloused hands explored each other's bodies, learning the difference a change of perspective could make. Zack had never been able to look over his own shoulder and see the shapes of his shoulder blades, the deep line his spine carved through the muscles of his back, the curve of his ass.

He had a pretty nice ass. He felt it up.

Zackary responded with heated touches that seemed to find all of Zack's weakness. Blunt fingernails trailed up his side and made him shiver, then ran over his nipples. Zack shuddered.

He grabbed Zackary's hips and flipped him over, but Zackary wasn't going to give up without a fight. Good. Zack laughed as they grappled with each other, roughly but not carelessly. Zackary tossed Zack over his side, and Zack used the leverage of his hips to reverse their positions again. It was a good thing the double bed was pretty huge.

The playfight ended with Zack on top, straddling his twin's hips.

Zack grinned down at him, his smile feral. He could do anything. He could do everything he would feel bad about doing but wished he could do (to his too-young, too-adorable best infantry buddy, but Gaia he was so not thinking about that), and he could let go in ways he'd feel nervous about anyone but himself seeing. No one else would ever know about this.

He started by flipping his other self onto his stomach and yanking his arms behind his back, hard enough to make Zackary hiss. He bucked underneath him, but Zack held him fast.

They had laid out an assortment of toys and paraphernalia on the bedside table ready to play with. Zack took a coil of soft black cord and wrapped it around Zackary's arms, wrist to elbow. He looked good like that. The contrast of the dark rope against tan skin, and the little red marks where Zackary struggled against his bonds.

He took a collar from the table and tightened it around Zackary's neck to complete the look. Maybe Zack complained about the puppy nickname, but it was undeniable that it suited him.

"Are you just gonna sit and stare at me all day?" Zackary griped.

Nope," Zack replied happily. He turned him over again, and Zackary wriggled beneath him to get his arms comfortable underneath the arch of his back. Zack scooted up to sit on his chest, leaning over his twin with his arms resting on the headboard. His erection was pointedly in Zackary's face. "Suck it."

Zack was regularly told he had a big mouth. Both figuratively and literally. One thing was for certain; it was a damn good mouth for sucking cock with.

Zackary glowered indignantly as Zack shoved his dick into his mouth, making a muffled noise of protest. It was totally against blowjob etiquette, but Zack figured he could get away with it for once. He'd always kinda wanted to know what he would look like getting thoroughly face-fucked. His lips were stretched tight around the base of the thick cock he was choking on, eyes watering, swallowing desperately around him.

By the time Zack let him up for air there was a thin track of tears down Zackary's flushed cheeks, matched by the thin track of saliva from the corner of his abused mouth.

"Hnng!" Zackary gagged on Zack's cock as he forced it down his throat again.

Zack fisted his hand into his twin's hair, holding him in place. It would be so easy to come like that, to keep going until he came in Zackary's mouth, watching the expressions play across the face that was identical to his own. The sullen indignity and frustration and narrowed mako eyes that were dilated with lust all the same.

He was totally getting off on being used.

Zackary was breathing in heavy, shuddering gasps when Zack released him. Zack's own breath matched, panting hard. It was just as utterly exhilarating to be the one in control.

"You're… just staring… again," Zackary huffed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Zack purred. "What would you like me to do?"

Not that he even needed to ask, obviously. He knew exactly what he wanted, what he'd been fantasizing about.

"Fuck me."

Zack hooked a finger under the collar around his twin's neck, grinning savagely.

There was lube on the bedside table. Of course. He prepped Zackary until he could work three slick fingers in and out of his ass. He knew exactly which way to curl his fingers inside, exactly the right amount of pressure to use to turn his twin into a trembling, growling wreck.

Zackary didn't just lie there and take it though. Zack would have been disappointed if he had. Both of them were sporting several bite marks and bruises by the time he was done.

He made the sacrifice of untying his other self's arms so he could have him on all fours. He used the cord to loop through the ring on the collar and tie it to the headboard, leashing Zackary in place.

"Fuck me," Zackary repeated. "Fuck me exactly how you like it, fuck me so deep it  _hurts_."

He bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed, holding back his cries as Zack's slick cock split him open.

Zack gasped. "So fucking tight…"

He didn't give Zackary any time to get used to it. He tangled his fingers into his other self's hair, pulling his head back with every thrust as he pounded into him from behind.

Zack watched both of them in mirror, out of the corner of his eye. The sight was incredible. The two of them, practically identical, locked together in a rough, heated facsimile of making love. The expressions that played across Zackary's face; the pleasure mixed in with sublime pain of his harsh treatment; the concentration as he tried to hold himself together; surrender when he broke. The expressions that played over his own face. He looked lustful, demanding and serious for once with the concentration of remaining in control, but there was a glint of amusement in his eye as well. In both his and Zackary's. Above everything else, it was fucking fun.

He shot his load inside of his double. Zackary clenched tight around him as he hit his own peak with Zack's hand stroking tight around his cock.

Gaia, he actually looked really fucking gorgeous when he came.

Trembling and panting hard, they untangled from each other. Zack undid the collar, and they both collapsed down onto the bed, groaning.

Zack couldn't help it. He laughed.

"That was pretty awesome," he commented, still out of breath.

They looked just as good like that. Naked and satisfied, a few red marks marring both of them, tangled together amongst the rumpled and stained bedcovers.

Yeah, Zack had been right. Selfcest was totally hot.

Zack gave his arms a satisfied stretch, leaning contentedly back in the computer chair. The clock was blinking stupid-o'clock in the morning. Apparently getting way too caught up in the game was a regular side-effect.

He spun himself round on the chair, then almost jumped out of his skin upon realising that he wasn't alone anymore.

Cloud was now awake - only just, by the looks of things - and standing behind him, blinking blearily at the screen of Zack's laptop. He yawned and mumbled.

"What the fuck are you doing, Zack?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kesskay asked: I dare you to write cloud introducing angeal to the actual sex game.

Angeal had only ever seen Cloud at a distance. His impression had been one of small stature, ridiculously gravity-defying hair, and a very put-upon, irritated expression. The last of these was probably due to the fact that Angeal had only ever seen him when they were both in close proximity to one Zack Fair.

He had gathered further intelligence through hearsay. According to his CO, Cloud Strife showed potential as a gifted swordsman and performed admirably in the written and technical aspects of his training, but was held back by his reluctance to trust and work together with the rest of his unit. According to Zack, Cloud Strife was the most adorable being on the planet and just needed a bit of encouraging to get over his shyness.

According to Sephiroth and Genesis, Cloud Strife was in possession of questionable material relating to the First Class SOLDIERs. Something which had still not been adequately explained in anything but vague hints and snippets of information gleaned from listening to his two friends bicker.

Sephiroth had suggested that Angeal ask Strife about the contents of the disc that caused so much controversy. It wasn't a bad idea.

Which was why Angeal now found himself stood in front of the infantryman's door.

Cloud opened the door and his eyes went wide. "Sir!" he saluted. His eyes darted to behind Angeal, looking for Zack. Zack was the only possible reason that a First Class SOLDIER would ever be visiting him. There was no Zack.

"At ease, Cloud."

"Yes, sir." He dropped the salute, but his eyes were still wide. "Uhm. If you don't mind me asking. Why are you here?"

Angeal heard the real question that Cloud was asking and chuckled. "You're not in trouble."

Cloud did relax a bit at that assurance.

"I've heard that you might be able to assist me. May I come in?"

Cloud had to wonder what he could possibly be able to help a SOLDIER with, but he stood aside to allow Angeal into his apartment.

His place wasn't much. It was part of a looming apartment block built by ShinRa, for ShinRa. It was close to HQ, not even further away than when he'd been in the barracks. And sure, it was small and cheap and everything was painted in that particular no-one-really-gave-a-shit-about-this-project shade of beige, but it definitely beat sharing his living space with a bunch of other grunts.

He'd never realised quite how small it was. Angeal seemed to take up half the living room.

"C-can I get you a drink or anything?" Cloud offered.

"Just a water, thank you."

It was three short steps into the kitchen to get a glass and fill it. When he returned, Cloud found that Angeal appeared to be inspecting his computer desk. Cloud placed the glass next to him, then sat himself down on the tatty, overstuffed sofa. "So, what can I help you with?"

"My friends inform me that you have a copy of a particular game featuring our likenesses."

Oh. Shit. That's what he was looking for. And the disc was in the computer, there was no way he could get it out and hide it without being noticed.  _Shit!_

"I-I don't... I mean, that's not... it's just..."

Angeal gave the red-faced, stuttering infantryman an amused look. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

It wasn't like there was any point in denying it. Cloud's brilliant flush told everything.

"May I play it?"

Cloud was glad he was already sat down, otherwise his legs might have given way in shock. "What?!"

"May I play it," Angeal repeated.

"Uhm. Did the cafeteria staff get the mushrooms in the risotto mixed up again?"

Angeal chuckled; that incident was pretty infamous. "You're not hallucinating."

"Oh. That's a shame."

It was clear from Cloud's dazed expression that he wouldn't be capable of formulating a coherent answer for a few minutes at least. Angeal took the liberty of seating himself at the desk and turning the computer on.

"Password?"

"...Sephiroth."

"You might want to consider changing that. You could hack into half the infantry member's files using his name."

The system booted up. It wasn't hard for Angeal to find what he was looking for; simply opening the computer menu revealed the game was there and ready to play. He started it up.

Cloud hovered nervously at Angeal's shoulder, watching as the main menu opened. "You could try it on hard mode," he suggested. "You get the best game experience doing it that way."

To be fair, it was the best game experience as far as Cloud was concerned. It also took a ridiculously long-ass time to get anywhere. Angeal would get fed up of it long before anything too incriminating popped up.

Angeal wasn't convinced in the slightest. "I think easy would be best."

Well, it had been worth a shot.

Easy was selected, and Angeal raised an eyebrow at the character selection menu before choosing to play as the computerised game version of himself. He tested out the controls, flicking the menus open and running in circles across the starting area.

"So what exactly do you do with this game?"

"It's... uhm. It's like... a dating sim, I guess? You can go around and have conversations with the other characters, and depending on what you say to them they'll either like you more or less. If they like you enough, you can go out on dates and stuff."

"That's it?"

"That's the very basics. You've also got your own stats," Cloud leant over and opened up the game menu, "here, see. You need to train and increase those to achieve mission goals and get promoted. It doesn't really matter on easy, 'cause you're already a First Class, but on hard mode you start in the infantry, and unless you get promoted into SOLDIER you'll almost never run into Sephiroth or Genesis or... or you, I guess."

Even being utterly mortified could not still Cloud's tongue when it came to talking about the game he loved so dearly.

"What do I do here?"

"You're on the SOLDIER floor. There- he just went into the training room. Sephiroth. Go talk to him."

Angeal got the hang of the game soon enough, and Cloud retreated back to the sofa to stay out of his way. And maybe because he wanted to be able to make a quick escape when the inevitable occurred. It really wasn't difficult to trigger one of the sex scenes on easy mode; that was why it was easy, after all. He had no idea how Angeal would react to that. Did he know? Did he have some idea about the true nature of the game? Or would it come as a complete surprise?

Zack talked about Angeal a lot. He said that Angeal looked scary and had a mean frown, but he was secretly a total softie. Maybe to Zack he was; nobody could resist those puppy eyes for long. That didn't mean Cloud was safe.

Angeal seemed to have settled in to the game for the long haul, and Cloud was getting antsy. And a bit hungry. He'd been about to start dinner before Angeal turned up.

"Do you want anything to eat?" Cloud offered.

"Mmhm," Angeal hummed in confirmation, his attention still very much focused on the game.

"Pasta and cheese sauce?"

"Sounds good."

Cloud left him to it.

He had got the pasta boiling and was just starting to stir the cheese sauce together when Angeal appeared in the little archway connecting the two rooms. Cloud jumped. For a big man he could be damn quiet when he wanted to be.

"I'm not imposing, am I?"

Angeal looked like he was actually concerned about it, enough so that he'd got up to come and check on Cloud. Zack would probably laugh and do a terrible impression of Angeal and say it wasn't honourable to burst into infantrymen's apartments and make them cook dinner for you.

"No, not at all, sir. It's fine. I'm sorry it's nothing any fancier, this was all I ever got to practice making in the barracks."

Angeal cocked his head questioningly. "The barracks are not supplied with cooking equipment."

"No... but there's only so much cafeteria food a guy can take. I snuck a kettle in there."

"A kettle?"

"Turns out you can boil a lot of stuff in one," Cloud said. "Boiled eggs, pasta, rice, some vegetables too..."

"In a kettle."

"It's not really easy or convenient. You have to keep reboiling it when it switches itself off, and topping up the water and stuff, and things like rice tend to froth. But yeah."

"Is that allowed?" Angeal asked, eyebrow raised. There was a hint of a smile playing at his lips, though.

"Probably not. I plead guilty to smuggling black market pasta onto ShinRa property, sir."

Angeal chuckled. "I won't hold it against you. I've had my share of cafeteria food as well." He nodded and took his leave, since the kitchen wasn't really big enough to hold the both of them at once. He figured Cloud didn't need any further distraction; the pasta was starting to boil over.

Cloud yelped and made a move to rescue his dinner.

He still wasn't exactly happy with the current situation, but he had to admit Zack had been right. Angeal was nice. It was freaking weird that he was in Cloud's apartment and had commandeered his computer, but Angeal did seem nice.

He was back to playing the game by the time Cloud emerged from the kitchen with two steaming bowls of pasta and sauce.

"Thank you, Cloud," Angeal acknowledged. It may not have been fancy, but the simple meal still seemed appetising. Angeal approved.

Cloud looked over Angeal's shoulder and blinked at the game's stats. Damn. He'd got his social link with Sephiroth that high already? "You're good at this thing," he said, indicating the computer screen with a nod of his head.

"Well, I have spent several years learning how to deal with these two. Real life is trickier, I can promise you that."

Cloud smiled. "Yeah. No convenient internet walkthroughs there."

Their meal was shared in mostly silence, broken only by the clicking of the mouse and Angeal navigated through some new exploit or other. But it was a companionable sort of silence. In fact, Cloud had almost allowed himself to relax when he heard a familiar and unwelcome strain of background music begin to play.

He almost dropped his bowl, and scrambled to save it. "Shit!" Cloud wasn't sure whether he was talking about the bowl, or his current life in general.

"What do I do in this section, Strife?"

"Shit," Cloud said again. He righted his cutlery on the coffee table. "That's... um. Maybe you should... I mean, I don't think... shit."

Angeal turned to raise an eyebrow at him. From Cloud's reaction, he had clearly stumbled upon the questionable content the game contained. It was no surprise that there was more to it. The dating sim part had so far been intricately designed, graphically pleasing, and almost rather sweet. Sephiroth would have protested the use of their image for such fannish indulgence either way, but there was nothing that would drive him to call it 'filth'.

On Cloud's part, he realised there was no way out of the situation. He was dead either way, either literally or of embarrassment, so he might as well get bonus points for telling the truth.

"After you date someone in the game, you can... uhh, take them to bed."

"I see."

"It's quite, uhm, detailed, so..."

"I'll watch."

"Okay," Cloud acquiesced. He couldn't help but stare, trying to read Angeal's expression as he watched the scene unfold. He didn't have much luck. Angeal had got a scene with himself and Sephiroth, and they were currently making out passionately, both of them shirtless. Game-Angeal pressed Sephiroth up against the wall, and Sephiroth made a noise that sounded like pure sex. They'd gone all-out on the voice actors as well.

Angeal breathed in sharply. "He didn't," he muttered, low enough that Cloud almost missed it. He suspected he was meant to have missed it.

"Sir?" Cloud finally interjected. "How can you stay so calm?"

Angeal smiled, but his gaze was still on the screen. "I did grow up with Genesis. It takes a lot to surprise me."

Until the next menu popped up, and both of Angeal's eyebrows raised. There was an option for  _knifeplay_ in this game? So much for the sweet dating sim. ...then again, he already knew Genesis had played at least some part in the development of this thing. He should have expected as much.

"...the stuff with Sephiroth and bondage is always really great," Cloud advised quietly.

"You're into this kind of thing?"

Cloud flushed bright red, but he nodded.

"Hmph. Zack's got himself a handful."

"Wh-what?"

The scene began to play in the background. Game-Angeal had Sephiroth by the throat, tightening leather cuffs around his wrists and ankles. Gaia,  _yes_. Sephiroth always looked amazing in black leather, and this was no exception. Cloud's attention was torn between staring at the screen, tongue wetting his lips, and listening to what Angeal was saying.

"Zack's interested in you. Did you not know?"

"No... I always thought he had a crush on  _you_. The way he always talks about you, and how he always gets so excited to be spending time around you, and he totally gets those puppy eyes every time he sees you..."

Angeal's expression looked about as bewildered as Cloud felt.

Cloud laughed, though his tone turned slightly strangled as he caught sight of on-screen Sephiroth being laid out on the bed, Angeal looming over him. The same Angeal who was currently sitting in front of him and getting confused over crushes. Cloud felt his groin twitch. He had to stop looking, or he was going to end up with the most awkward boner imaginable, but Gaia, how could he not look? That damn  _game_.

Angeal had to have noticed his reaction. He glanced back at the screen, a flicker of... something crossing his face. There was most definitely distaste, and an unamused frown. But Angeal was still a man with needs, and the gorgeous image was stirring them. That damn game.

Easy to see why the lower ranks liked it so much. Although, some of it seemed a little... extreme. Cloud's wide eyes and parted lips were enraptured with it.

"You are into this kind of thing."

Cute, good-natured,  _and_ kinky. It was almost enough to make Angeal envious that his puppy had found him first.

Cloud tore his eyes away. "I'm sorry, sir!"

Game-Sephiroth's scream rang out as game-Angeal shoved roughly into him, turned tinny by the low-quality speakers but still inherently sexual. Angeal growled once and hit the power button. The screen went black.

"That's quite enough of that."

"I'm sorry," Cloud repeated, though it wasn't clear what he was apologising for. The game? Getting turned on by it? Angeal couldn't be mad at him for either of those things, though he would be having  _words_  with Genesis for condoning the development of this thing. Angeal was willing to turn a blind eye to much of their fandoms activities, but Genesis had gone too far in giving them the amount of information he must have done to have the game be as accurate as it was.

That scene with himself and Sephiroth... was remarkably similar to something that had actually occurred. Too similar. And Genesis had been there watching.

Angeal stood abruptly and Cloud jumped back, startled. SOLDIERs moved insanely fast. "Thank you for your help, Cloud."

Cloud's eyes quickly flicked back up to Angeal's face. The sudden change in position had granted him an eyeful of the bulge in the front of Angeal's combat trousers, which he was not staring at, no way, absolutely not. It had just been  _there_ , right in his face. No, bad turn of phrase. Although... he wouldn't have minded if it was in his face.

He took a breath. He had sex on his mind now, and it was totally inappropriate to be thinking about the First Class SOLDIER that way. That damn game.

Angeal's mouth was set into a hard line, but he spared a smile for the infantryman. "Next time Zack and myself are free, you are welcome to join the both of us. There's a burger joint below the plate that Zack is fond of."

Cloud's mouth opened and closed a couple of times. He'd wasn't dead, and he'd just been invited to hang out with a First Class. He settled on vigorous nodding.

"Good night, Cloud. Thank you for the meal."

"Good night, sir."

Angeal left the apartment enlightened, and finally comprehending Sephiroth's reaction to the disc he had found. Genesis was due a lecture on boundaries. And honour.

And then maybe he would borrow Genesis' copy of the game.


	4. Chapter 4

Genesis shot Angeal a look of half-hearted distaste over the top of his book. How could he actually be working? It was late Friday afternoon, pleasantly warm, with orange sunlight streaming low through the window. It was a moment made for laziness, and only laziness.

And yet Angeal was still sitting there, head bent over his desk, furiously scrawling on a sheet of paper.

"Angeal, stop working so hard," Genesis sighed. "You're giving me a headache just watching you."

"Hn." Angeal gave him no further acknowledgement.

Genesis rolled his eyes and returned to his reading. He got through several more pages before glancing up again.

Angeal was still frowning at his work with a look of intense concentration. He paused to think, absently tapping the end of his pen against his lips, then went back to drawing.

Drawing. Not writing. He wasn't working on paperwork at all, and Genesis found his interest perked significantly. "What are you doing?"

Angeal ran a critical eye over his creation and added a few more lines. "Does the game support additional original content?" he asked.

"Pardon?"

"That... game of yours. Does it support these 'mods'?"

Genesis blinked, then a slow smirk spread across his face. "It's hardly  _my_  game. Why do you ask?"

Angeal spun the page around and pushed it to the other side of the desk. Genesis snatched it up. After a moment of inspection, he let out a guffaw of delight.

"Can you do it?"

"You do know there is already an option for-"

"I want this in particular."

Genesis carefully folded the drawing and tucked it away. "Well, then," he purred. "I'm sure I've got some old contacts who would be happy to help."

-~*~-

-~*~-

Angeal was not convinced that involving Genesis had been the wisest idea. It was nothing overt, just little smirks and knowing looks that were beginning to get tiresome. And that time Genesis had suddenly come to watch him train with Zack. He never said a word, just leant against the wall with his arms crossed and a smug smile plastered on his face.

"Uhh. What's Genesis doing here?" Zack had asked, a good half hour into their awkward session.

"Being a dick," was Angeal's flat reply.

Still, Genesis was true to his word. A week later he let himself into Angeal's apartment, wielding a USB stick like it was the gift of the goddess.

"Here it is, Angeal!" he announced with a dramatic flourish. "Your very own mod to use to your perverted heart's content."

Angeal frowned. Genesis was a fine one to talk. "I'm not a pervert."

"I have a file on here that says otherwise."

"It's just a mask. Hardly perverted, especially compared to some of the other things that  _you_  approved for that game."

Genesis chuckled. "I would almost believe you, if you hadn't drawn it being worn by a certain adorable young SOLDER young already constantly refer to as your 'puppy'."

Angeal narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, relax. I'm not making a move. I'll admit that your student is a fine piece of ass, but he's too boisterous for my tastes. I'll let you finish training him first."

"Fine," Angeal sighed. "Thank you for the delivery."

Genesis gave him a look that was absolutely affronted. "Delivery? I think not. I will, of course, be needing to see it in action."

Genesis was fluent in Angeal's expressions. He had an entire language of frowns. There was the lecturing frown; the frown of concentration; the frown when he was perplexed and uncertain; the frown where he was secretly amused but didn't want to admit it. The frown that was accompanied by a soft, slow shake of the head, that meant 'I don't understand you and I don't think I ever will, but I love you anyway'.

The particular frown he was wearing now was resigned, a mix of the 'I do not approve of what you're doing' frown and 'but I know I can't stop you'.

Genesis pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Angeal's mouth. "Let's play. Shall we?"

Angeal let out a heavy breath, but he was shaking his head fondly. Genesis had a bad habit of getting his way. "Fine. Why not."

He sat down at his desk, and Genesis leant against his shoulders from behind.

"Here. Go to wherever you installed the game files to and open up the items folder. Copy the files from the USB into there. I presume you've still got that spare copy of the disc I loaned you?"

Angeal did as he was directed. "You have more than one copy?"

"Well, of course. Especially since Sephiroth still seems to have that penchant for snapping the things."

"Can you blame him?"

Genesis waved a dismissive hand. "He just hasn't learned to appreciate the true beauty of such a masterpiece yet. I'll convince him."

"Mmhm. Do try not to cause too much damage with that, please."

"You wound me, Angeal."

"I'm more concerned about Sephiroth wounding you."

Genesis just smiled. Like he'd turn down an excuse for a decent spar with Sephiroth. "I promise we won't do any wounding in the apartment this time. Hurry up and play already."

Angeal hovered over the menu. "Do I need to start a new game?"

"No, the mod should work fine with any existing save files. It's flagged to automatically add itself to Zack's inventory." Angeal shot him a look, and Genesis huffed a laugh. "Oh, come on. Don't even try and deny that's what you wanted it for."

Angeal opened up his most recent save. Zack's NPC wasn't hard to find. Within working hours (and often outside them as well) he almost inevitably turned up in the training room, or out on the SOLDIER floor doing squats if any of the Firsts had kicked him out of there.

"You maxed out his social link already?" Genesis commented. "That takes dedication."

"Shut up, Gen."

Genesis' smirk grew wider with every click Angeal made. He invited Zack back to his place. And there it was, in Zack's inventory just as Genesis had promised.

"I took the liberty of telling them to add a few extra accessories for you," Genesis said. "Some are new, a couple are updated versions of existing items. They match the mask you made now."

"How... thoughtful of you."

Angeal went through the inventory and equipped them. The result was breathtaking.

Zack was stripped down to his underwear, a tight-fitting black jockstrap that revealed the short little butt-plug tail. It was matching black and curved upwards, waving happily as Zack wriggled. There was a harness round his shoulders and the top of his chest, all soft leather and metal rings, that only seemed to emphasis his perked nipples. His hands were bound with more of the leather and straps that matched the collar around his neck.

And the mask. The mask had come out perfectly. It covered the top two thirds of Zack's face, shaped in the front to form a dog's muzzle. The straps vanished into Zack's wild hair, the black ears perking up as if they were naturally a part of him. The look suited him.

Angeal swallowed and initiated the pet play sequence.

Zack's tongue lolled from his grinning mouth as he knelt as Angeal's feet, nuzzling his head against his knee. Angeal stared at the screen, captivated. There was a list of commands on the sidebar menu; he instructed Zack to roll over. Zack wuffed softly and rolled onto his back, pawing at the air.

It was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. Angeal could practically feel his heart swell.

He went through every command on the list. Multiple times.

Genesis got bored of this very quickly. "Are you just going to play with your pet all day?" he questioned, rolling his eyes. "Fuck him already."

"No, this is fine."

"Zack's getting horny," Genesis pointed out.

"Why is there even a stat for that?" Angeal asked, giving Genesis an accusatory look.

"Oh, please. It's not like I designed the whole game. I just gave them a few nudges in the right direction. And a bit of funding. Why do you assume everything is my fault?"

"It usually is."

Genesis sighed theatrically as Angeal went straight back to giving Zack commands. Then he stood up a little straighter. Had Angeal been paying attention, he would have seen a spark of mischief light Genesis' eyes.

"It seems a shame, though," he began conversationally, dangerously.

"What does?" Angeal was too distracted to even notice.

"His ass looks fabulous with that little tail in. But it would look so much better with your huge cock stretching it open."

Angeal made a short choked noise. "Was that really necessary, Genesis?"

Genesis grinned. "Yes. You know he'd look good getting fucked. He'd make those pained little yipping noises every time you slammed into him. And he'd be so hot and tight inside, trembling around your dick."

"Stop it."

"So obedient for you. You could fuck his face, finally shut up that big mouth of his. Watch his eyes glaze over with lust, have him writhing underneath you."

" _Genesis_."

Genesis draped himself over Angeal's back, letting his words ghost against his neck. "You do know I'm not talking about the game, Angeal?"

Angeal abruptly stood up and shoved Genesis off. Genesis just laughed.

"Alright. I think it's time for you to go home. Shouldn't you be annoying Sephiroth?"

"Why not, though? It's obvious you're totally into your little puppy."

Angeal took Genesis by the scruff of the neck, in what was colloquially known as the 'puppy grip' whenever he did it to Zack. Genesis would normally have been offended to be treated such a way, but he was having so much fun needling Angeal that he barely even noticed.

"I bet he's into you as well. It would be like something out of his wildest wet dreams."

"I don't think so. He likes his friend, the little blond."

"Oh, Cloud? He's cute too. Invite him for a threesome, then everyone's happy."

"Genesis?"

Genesis fluttered his eyelashes. "Yes, Angeal?"

"I'm throwing you out now." And Angeal did.

Genesis stared at the closed door. The  _nerve!_  Angeal was probably going ahead and fucking his puppy in the game now that Genesis wasn't there to watch. And jacking off while doing it. To think Genesis had been going to lend him a hand!

Still. A slow smile spread across Genesis' face. He had certainly planted the seeds of possibility in Angeal's mind. With any luck, he'd have those mental images burnt into his mind for the whole night. Maybe longer.

His work here was done.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angeal's drawing done by me (I write a hell of a lot more than I art >>). Reference image: http://corporalumi.deviantart.com/art/Wearing-my-leather-Puppy-Mask-198025663


	5. Chapter 5

Genesis was preparing for  _war_.

This wasn't just about pride anymore, or about being the best. There was far most at stake than his ego - and for Genesis to admit that even to himself was something almost unheard of. Sparring was supposed to be a fair fight. War, on the other hand, was never fair.

So he felt perfectly justified in stocking up with every dirty, underhanded trick he could think of.

Sephiroth would, inevitably, have a ribbon equipped, so status effects were out. Genesis made sure to keep and Stop and Poison materia on him anyway, just in case. He stocked up on the highest level battle items he had; Fire Veils, Swift Bolts, Ice Crystals, M-tentacles, Dragon Scales, even some of the 8-inch Cannons he was not meant to have but had 'borrowed' off the Weapons department.

He polished Rapier to a perfect shine, put on his best coat and boots, preened his hair until it flicked out just how it should. He squarely faced the door.

Angeal sighed. "Are you sparring with Sephiroth again?"

"This is about far more than just a spar," Genesis denied haughtily.

Angeal just shook his head; he knew that trying to dissuade Genesis would achieve nothing. "Try not to destroy anything."

It was a futile hope, really. Genesis smirked the whole way to the VR rooms.

* * *

Sephiroth deflected every strike Genesis made. Their swords clashed again and again, the metallic ring loud enough to make their ears hurt.

Genesis snarled in defiance and launched himself into the air.

They were fighting in Midgar this time, at the very top of the ShinRa HQ building. There was an emergency helipad up here, and Genesis made use of the exciting toys available to play with in such a location. He launched a Fire3 spell that went over Sephiroth's head.

Sephiroth gave him a smirk; that hadn't even been close to hitting him.

Genesis hadn't been aiming for Sephiroth. The helicopter behind him flipped over and exploded; Sephiroth jumped clear of the blast with only a small huff of disapproval.

Their swords met and sparks flew.

Genesis waited for an opening. All he needed was one moment, the slightest hesitation. When the second helicopter exploded unexpectedly, triggered by the first blast, Sephiroth flinched.

Genesis threw everything he had at him. Every single item he had collected. Fire spells, thunder, ice, Aqualung, pure delicious explosives. He couldn't even see Sephiroth anymore, lost somewhere amidst the chaos of smoke and embers and crackling ice, but Genesis kept it up. He added a few spells of his own for good measure.

He stumbled, panting. Perhaps he'd overdone using his own materia; his MP had dropped significantly within just half a minute.

No sign of Sephiroth.

Genesis waited for the smoke and debris to clear. And when it did, Sephiroth was there, standing amongst the wreckage. The maelstrom had taken it's toll, though. He wasn't perfect and unaffected. He was bruised and bloody and mottled with specks of ash.

He swayed and dropped to one knee. Genesis put Rapier to his throat and Sephiroth glared up at him, murderous.

"I win," Genesis proclaimed softly.

Sephiroth shoved him away. He stood and brushed himself down, all the damage melting away as he cast a Cure3. His eyes flashed darkly with irritation. "We do not use battle items in a sparring match."

"Says who?" Genesis ended the simulation, and Midgar disintegrated into data around them. He folded his arms. Smirking was not going to help his cause, but  _by the goddess_  he wanted to gloat. "No one ever set out any rules."

"That may be true, but it was no test of strength or skill. You cannot claim to be better than me just because you won this way."

Genesis waved a dismissive hand. "I didn't need to prove I was better than you. Not this time. I just needed to  _win_." He gave up on trying to hide his smirk. The grin he gave Sephiroth was almost feral. "You know why."

"No," Sephiroth stated.

"It was a deal."

"It was a ridiculous deal."

"If I win the match, you would give the game a chance."

Sephiroth snorted. He started towards the door, and Genesis bristled like an enraged peacock.

Genesis shoved his way in front of Sephiroth, eyes dangerously bright. "I won. You will _honour_  our deal, won't you, Sephiroth? I'm sure Angeal would have words to say if you didn't."

"I'm sure Angeal would have words to say about you and your ridiculous game," Sephiroth fired back.

Genesis smiled. Oh yes, he had the upper hand now. "Angeal happens to be  _very fond_ of my 'ridiculous game'. He had me make him a customized mod for it, you know."

That made Sephiroth pause. Even Angeal, of all people... he sighed and shook his head.

"So. Sit." Genesis pointed Sephiroth towards the desk. The area outside the training room was lined with computers and panels for monitoring the VR program and its occupants performance, but nestled amongst them was a standard issue ShinRa laptop.

Good. Sephiroth wouldn't feel so bad when he tore the thing to pieces.

" _Sit,_ " Genesis insisted dangerously.

The sooner they got this idiocy over with, the sooner he could go and kill something. Sephiroth sat.

Genesis quickly booted the laptop up out of its sleep mode, revealing the game's main menu already running and ready to begin.

That irritated Sephiroth more than he cared to admit. Genesis had been so sure of winning, just because he knew Sephiroth would not be expecting him to start throwing high-level battle items into their fight. It was irritating because he should have known Genesis would try something underhanded. He should have been ready for anything. He did not have the luxury of a fair fight on the battlefield, after all. He had been  _careless_. And now he had to suffer for his failings.

Geneis loaded one of the existing save files he had prepared for demonstration.

Sephiroth twitched as the computer rendered versions of himself, Genesis, and Angeal appeared on the screen. They were in what appeared to be Genesis' apartment. And they were naked. Admittedly gorgeous, but naked. And engaged in some rather lewd acts.

He didn't even need to see any more than that.

Sephiroth's mouth turned up into a grimace of distaste. "I don't see what you hoped to achieve here, Genesis. The only point you have proved is my own. This 'game' is nothing but filth."

"Excuse you. This is  _art_."

"It's pornography."

"Well, yes. Why can't it be both?"

"Genesis _,_ " Sephiroth said in warning, in that emotionless tone that indicated he was only just holding on to self-control. Things were going to get broken. "Tell me why this game even exists."

"Wish fulfilment, Sephiroth. Fantasy," Genesis said grandly.

"Why is it necessary for me to be in these 'fantasies'?"

"It's going to happen anyway, and you know it. So why not embrace it. Enjoy it."

"Do you get off on that?" Sephiroth accused, the disgust clear in his voice. "Knowing that there are thousands of people out there seeing you that way?"

"Don't you? Think of the power we have over them. With those ideas planted in their minds, it would barely take a smile to bring them to their knees."

"I have Masamune to do that."

Genesis smirked, resisting the urge to make a double entendre regarding swords. "The love-"

"Lust," Sephiroth interjected.

"-of the people is a powerful tool, Sephiroth. As long as we remain in their minds, as they dedicate their energy to us, as we influence them...are we not immortal?"

Sephiroth snorted. "And this is how you would have them remember your immortal self?" he questioned with a note of mocking.

"Any publicity is good publicity."

"We are SOLDIERs. We are meant to be  _respected_ , not treated like celebrities to be gossiped and gawked over and used as sex symbols."

Genesis rolled his eyes. He happened to  _enjoy_  being a celebrity.

He toyed around with the laptop again, exiting the scene and loading a new file. Arguing with Sephiroth would get nowhere, he knew from experience. From  _lots_  of experience. It was exasperating, with both of them too stubborn to ever give up ground. But the quickest shortcut to a man's heart was by his dick... it was just a matter of pressing the right buttons. A different tactic was called for.

Sephiroth appeared about to argue again, but he paused, eyes widening. Then they narrowed again. The computer rendering of himself was on screen again, but this time there was someone else with him. Someone with blond hair and blue eyes, small and lean and with a pretty face that contorted in pleasure as Sephiroth pounded between his legs.

"Wish fulfilment, see," Genesis repeated with a soft smirk that Sephiroth didn't notice. "You can create whoever you want in the game."

The little trooper was trembling. His wrist and ankles were bound with leather, the dark material a delicious contrast to his pale skin. His legs were in the air, held apart by a spreader bar. There were bruises and bite marks all over his neck and chest and thighs, and bright red lines left by the sting of a flogger.

"He's a friend of Zack's, right? I've seen you looking. And he does look good, doesn't he? Just imagine him all tied up and begging for your cock..."

Sephiroth growled. "That is  _enough_ , Genesis." He slammed the laptop closed... though not hard enough to damage it.

Genesis laughed. Sephiroth would come around, just as Angeal had. He had long since mastered the art of needling his friends, and he knew it. And the game was a stroke of brilliance. Whether Sephiroth liked it or not, that was the truth.

"I've seen your damn game. May I leave now?" It was not a question so much as a heavily pointed order to let him leave.

Genesis let out an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, I suppose so."

Sephiroth stood up and scooped the laptop under his arm. Genesis' eyebrows raised to the ceiling.

"I will be taking this with me to destroy it."

Genesis smiled slowly. "Of course you will."

* * *

"Genesis, have you seen Sephiroth?"

Genesis paused in the middle of casting a Fire3 spell, the embers bursting like sparks as they drifted from his hand. It was probably for the best. The target he'd been casting at was looking distinctly charred, despite being supposedly materia resistant.

"No. Should I have?" he replied dismissively, not paying particular heed to the concern in Angeal's voice. Sephiroth was a big boy now, he could take care of himself.

"I haven't seem him for a while, and he hasn't had any missions or lab appointment scheduled."

"Why is this any concern of mine?"

Angeal gave him a hard stare. "Because he vanished shortly after that sparring match with  _you_."

"Well, it must be hard for him to have lost," Genesis smirked. He basked in the self-indulgent thought of Sephiroth being such a sore loser he couldn't bear to face either of them at all now.

"Stop preening. I'm worried."

Genesis sighed. "Oh, fine. The last time I saw him he was in his office, but that was the day before yesterday. I haven't seen him enter or leave since, but it's not like I've been keeping a watch."

Angeal made a thoughtful noise and started in the direction of Sephiroth's office. Genesis followed him. Tossing spells at a target that didn't fight back was boring anyway. And if they found Sephiroth, he could quietly gloat some more.

"Locked," was Angeal's assessment when they reached door. Knocking didn't get any response.

"Oh, please." Genesis leant over and typed an override code into the keypad. The light on the door flashed green, then it hissed and slid open for them.

Angeal frowned. Did he want to know how Genesis knew that code? Probably not. He doubted his methods would have been honourable.

Fortunately, Angeal was distracted from his disapproval by the sight the door revealed. "What the..."

Sephiroth was still in the office after all, and from the looks of things, he had been there the whole time. There were papers splayed out all across his usually highly organised desk, covered with chicken-scratch handwriting and rings from coffee mugs. The very many coffee mugs that outnumbered Sephiroth twenty to one.

Sephiroth himself was slumped over his desk with his head resting on the keyboard of the still-humming laptop, either unconscious or simply deeply asleep. Probably the latter, judging from the dark rings around his eyes. Had he really been awake and working himself to exhaustion this whole time? What could possibly be so important?

Genesis had no qualms in nosily poking around the desk. Sephiroth didn't even stir.

Angeal picked up one of the sheets of paper that Sephiroth had been working on. It was full of initials and numbered options and arrows and calculations that didn't make sense. "What is all this?"

Genesis slowly lit up. It started with raised eyebrows and a quizzical look, then turned into a smile that grew wider and wider as comprehension dawned. He checked the laptop and almost let out a shriek of delight.

"He actually did it... this is amazing!"

"What is?"

"A fivesome. That's supposed to be impossible!"

"... _what?!_ "

"See, the game is configured to prevent it happening. You need to have a social link of a certain value before you're able to initiate a sex scene with any of the characters, right? If you do something they don't like, the social link value decreases. There's a jealously clause where trying to initiate sex with multiple characters at once will cause a decrease, and the effect compounds with the amount of characters involved. But there's also other mechanics, like each of the NPC character's social links with each other. If they have a high social value, the jealously decrease will be less."

Angeal was looking bewildered. "This is about that game?"

"Threesomes aren't too tough, you just have to make sure your social link with both the characters you're trying to bang is high enough. Foursomes are notoriously tricky. A fivesome... the jealously decrease multiplied by four should drop all social links too low to initiate the sex scene, it should be impossible."

Slow understanding, mixed with a little bit of horror, crept onto Angeal's face. He stared at the scrawled page of writing that he had taken from the desk in a new light.

"He calculated the exact values for every single character, the variance in the jealousy clause, the difference that the status boosting items could make. It must have taken forever to get exactly right. This is  _genius._ "

"...did it work?" Angeal couldn't help but ask. Call it morbid curiosity.

Genesis just gestured to the laptop screen, where the game was idling. The image behind the pause message showed that Sephiroth had, in fact, been successful. Five of them. Angeal, Genesis, Sephiroth, Zack, and that little trooper he'd met. Cloud. How did Sephiroth even know about Cloud? How did he know him well enough to apparently create a computerised copy of him in the game? Angeal frowned.

But it was impossible not to admit it. They made a very pretty picture all curled up together naked on the bed, every one of them looking thoroughly ravaged and exhausted. The scene that must have played out prior to that... it would have been a sight to see, there was no doubt about that. Angeal shifted a little.

" _Genius_ ," Genesis repeated with glee. "I need a copy of this save file." He leant over the laptop as best he could, only to suddenly freeze as a hand wrapped around his throat.

"What are you doing in my office," Sephiroth glowered groggily.

Genesis gave him a delicate smile. "Did I mention you were a genius?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud asks if Zack knows if one particular scene is physically possible. They recruit Angeal to see if it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A SAFE, COMFORTABLE OR REALISTIC POSITION IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM!! The whole premise is that it’s a completely unrealistic position, that’s why Cloud was so confused about it. (Zack just wanted to try it because he thought it would be hilarious and may have subtly been trying to get people to realise their attraction for each other by putting them in compromising positions.)
> 
> No one would ever do this in real life, SOLDIER or otherwise.

Zack was upside down on the sofa, intently focused on the handheld video game he was playing, when Cloud knocked and walked into his apartment.

"Heya, Cloudy!" he greeted, not daring to look away from his screen. The second he did, he'd start losing points, and he was doing so well on the ultimate level this time.

Cloud knew better than to interrupt. He hovered until Zack was done.

With a whoop of triumph, Zack cut of the victory fanfare and shut the device. He righted himself on the sofa and patted the spot next to him. "What's up?" he asked. He was still grinning, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

Cloud hesitated momentarily, but accepted the invitation. He sank significantly into the cushions of Zack's old and overly squishy sofa. "Why d'you assume something's up?"

"You knocked," Zack pointed out.

"So?"

"I thought I finally trained you out of knocking."

"Most people appreciate the warning before someone comes barging into their place," Cloud said dryly.

"But you haven't knocked for weeks. You're starting to get shy again, which means something's up."

Cloud stared at him. "I'm not... I mean, it's nothing really... how do you  _do_ that?"

Zack grinned and leant back. "You're my friend. It's my job to know these things." He had a packet of cheesy twists on the floor next to him, for snacking purposes during his gaming not-quite-marathon. He offered them to Cloud. "Soooo. What's up?"

Cloud absently took one of the cheese twists. "I have a question."

"Uh huh," Zack encouraged.

"About that game."

"A game or  _the_  game?"

"The game," Cloud confirmed. "You know the one I mean."

Zack was back to grinning again. "Ohh, I get it. There's some pretty kinky shit in there. I hadn't even heard of half the things in that until I got to Midgar. All those toys, and the stuff they do with the ropes, man! And I'd never thought that people could actually  _enjoy_  pain like that. It is kinda hard to get your head around. Nibelheim must be just as bad as Gongaga for sex ed, right? You want me to explain some stuff?"

Cloud snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. I've know about that kinda stuff was since I was thirteen. I mean, I didn't really know that there was a name for it, but duh."

Zack stared at him for long enough that Cloud started to go a little pink. He... had probably given away more than he meant to, saying that. Shit. With no one to talk to that stuff about in Nibelheim and - Zack was right - the extremely lacking sex ed there, it had taken Cloud longer than he would care to admit to realise that there were people who  _weren't_  into bondage and painplay and all those amazing kinks in the game. He still forgot it sometimes.

"A-anyway! That wasn't what I wanted to ask. It's just... usually the game is pretty high quality and realistic, right?"

"Right," Zack agreed slowly.

"But then I got this." Cloud fished around in his pocket for his PHS. "Here, I took a screenshot. And I know it's really, really dumb, but it's just been annoying the hell out me for some reason. Is this even physically possible?"

The screen displayed an image from the game. Three men, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Cloud's computerised version of himself. They were- Zack blinked. They were in a position that resembled an upturned triangle. Sephiroth leant against the wall at a sloped angle. Genesis had his legs wrapped around Sephiroth's waist, intimately joined to him. Which was pretty ordinary, really, except that they were leant apart to make room for Cloud's avatar, who was balanced between them, midair, with his cock in Sephiroth's mouth and his lips crushed against Genesis'.

Zack snorted, then hid his face behind his hand. This was completely ineffective, and he immediately fell about laughing.

"I can't believe... hahaha... Gaia,  _that's_ what you were worried about?"

Cloud scowled at him. "Shut up! I was just curious."

Zack's gale of laughter continued.

"That's it. I'm never coming to you with questions again."

Zack hiccuped helplessly, gradually quietening down into weak chuckles. "Hahaha... haha, ahh. Sorry." He smirked and almost lost it again. He ended up coughing instead. "So, uh. You and Seph and Gen, huh?"

"It's just a game," Cloud said evasively, shoving the PHS back into his pocket. He knew better than to admit to having a crush. "What do  _you_  do with it?"

"Point taken," Zack grinned.

"So. Is it possible? I can't believe they'd throw something like that into the game if it couldn't be done, but it just seems so... weird."

"Hmm. Sorry, Cloudy, I really don't know. It's not like I've tried it." Zack paused, then his eyes lit up. "Only one way to find out! We need to test it."

" _What?"_  Cloud choked. He was turning slightly pink again, damn it.

"Well, sure. I mean, just the position. With clothes on. Not- never mind. But we'll need someone else to join in too."

"No. Just no, Zack."

But Zack had latched onto the idea, and he turned into an unstoppable flurry of excitement. Discarding his game and the cheesy twists, he stood up and pulled Cloud to his feet. "C'mon, let's go!"

"Where?" Cloud asked, with a sinking feeling of dread.

"Angeal's place!"

"Zack!" Cloud hissed in protest. "You can't bother him with something like this!"

"Why not? He's my mentor. He said to ask him if I ever need to know anything."

"I'm pretty sure he didn't intend that to mean asking him about sex positions."

Zack sniggered. "He won't mind."

"Yes, he will."

"Trust me," Zack said, almost seriously this time. "He  _won't_  mind. Not if it's you."

Cloud had the rest of the journey up to the SOLDIER's quarters to figure out what  _that_  meant.

* * *

To Angeal's credit, he didn't kick the both of them out of his apartment. He didn't even look that surprised, just slowly raised an eyebrow higher and higher as Zack went through his explanation.

"So, the only way we're only gonna know is by testing it out," Zack concluded.

Angeal shook his head in fond exasperation.

"Cloud! Show Angeal the screenshot. It's hard to describe the position in words."

Cloud had been doing his best to not get involved. He was stood behind Zack, close to hiding, significantly embarrassed and rather wishing he could vanish into the ground. He mouthed the words 'I'm so sorry' to Angeal as he handed the PHS over to Zack.

Angeal gave Cloud a reassuring smile in return.

"Ah, here it is!" Zack thrust the PHS, now with the offending screenshot displayed, into Angeal's face.

Angeal paused, taking a moment to absorb the image, then frowned. "I see. That does seem... implausible."

"So, can we try it?"

"Puppy-" Angeal choked.

"With clothes on, I mean. I'm not saying we should- oh, come on! Stop giving me that look! You know what I meant."

"We know what you mean, it's just a really dumb idea," Cloud put in dryly.

"Hey, you were to one who asked about it in the first place!"

"And believe me, I regret it."

"Well, I don't see why not," Angeal interrupted.

Two pairs of eyes turned to stare at him. "Seriously?" Zack crowed.

"I can understand Cloud's curiosity. I am quite intrigued to see if it's plausible myself now. There is no harm."

"There might be harm if you drop me on my head," Cloud pointed out.

"Aw, c'mon, Cloudy, we wouldn't do that. You're dealing with two SOLDIERs here! You're in safe hands. Right, Angeal?"

Angeal didn't answer. He had moved across to the other side of the living room, here he was rearranging the furniture. Zack blinked, watching curiously as Angeal pulled out the sofa and rearranged it to stick out from the wall at a ninety degree angle.

"We can lean against the wall here," he suggested, standing with his back to the area he was indicating, right next to the extruding sofa. "If Cloud feels in danger of falling, he can shift to the side and land on the sofa without fear of injury."

"Perfect!" Zack grinned. He grabbed Cloud's hand and led him over to join Angeal. "Alright, how are we doing this? I guess Cloud's on top, since he's the lightest. You wanna be our main support, 'Geal?"

Angeal nodded. "That seems the best arrangement." He leaned back against the wall, bracing himself there. With good reason. With a whoop of enthusiasm, Zack launched himself at Angeal. He crashed into the larger man and wrapped his arms and legs around him, clinging like a limpet.

"Down, puppy," Angeal said, huffing a laugh.

Zack adjusted his legs around Angeal's waist and let go with his hands. He leaned out away from him, far enough that he was almost horizontal in the air, glancing upside-down at Cloud. "This how it went? Lemme see the reference picture again."

"Um. Yeah. That looks fine. Maybe not quite so low with the leaning back?"

Zack stuck his tongue out. "I know, but this is the only way I can look at you at the moment. Your turn now, Cloud."

Cloud regretted his life choices so much. But it would be even more awkward if he bailed now and left the two of them like that. He got as far as standing on the sofa before getting stuck. "How am I supposed to do this, exactly?"

"Climb on Angeal!"

Cloud glanced hesitantly to Angeal, who looked mostly resigned to his fate, and just a little bit amused as well.

"Go ahead," Angeal offered.

"Start by kneeling on his shoulders, then you can get into the final position from there," Zack suggested.

Cloud closed his eyes and whispered a short farewell to his dignity. Angeal offered an arm for Cloud to boost himself off, which did make things a lot easier. He manage to get up onto Angeal's shoulders with only a minimum of clambering and a few repeated apologies.

"Okay, now you gotta lean forward and meet me," Zack directed.

Cloud look dubious. Zack looked a lot further away from up here. It wasn't even that that was the problem, though. He would have to be leaning slightly downwards, rather than straight across like a bridge, and gravity was concerning him. If he started leaning, he wouldn't be able to stop.

Zack, as indomitable as ever, was still grinning, vastly entertained by the whole thing. "I'll catch you," he offered, hands out ready.

"I... can't really lean forward from here."

"Oh, right. Yeah, you need to be in front of Angeal's face. The front of your thighs should be against his shoulders, and your knees and shins will have to brace against the wall or something."

"Zack!" Cloud hissed. "Angeal doesn't want my ass in his face like that!"

"Why not? It's a nice ass."

"That is not...  _Zack!_ "

"Actually, I believe Zack does have a point this time," Angeal said. "It is a nice ass."

Cloud's protests died on his tongue, turning into splutters. He gaped for a few moments then, realising that he wasn't ever going to have a comeback to that, promptly snapped his mouth shut.

Zack was smirking. "Told ya he wouldn't mind."

"Fine," Cloud sighed, blushing furiously but trying to pretend he wasn't. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner he could pretend it had never happened.

Trying to manoeuvre into the position Zack had described was even more awkward than getting up onto Angeal's shoulders in the first place.

Generally, Cloud was pretty comfortable around Angeal now. After their first meeting in Cloud's apartment, Angeal had made good on his invitation to have Cloud join him and Zack for a meal out. For several meals out. And then a lot more meals in, hosted at either Angeal's or Zack's apartments and accompanied by movies and games and pleasant conversation. They'd even been round to Cloud's a couple of times, but his tiny little apartment really wasn't big enough for all of them. There was only room for two on his sofa. Cloud had ended up having to sit in Zack's lap, at Zack's insistence, only to end up with Angeal instead when Zack complained of his legs going dead halfway through the movie.

So he considered himself on good terms, maybe even friends, with Angeal. That did not mean he was on good enough terms with him to be shoving his crotch in the Commander's face.

Unfortunately, that was inevitable. It was the whole point of the position, after all. Cloud managed to lower himself down to meet Zack, only losing to gravity for the last foot. Zack caught him with a grin.

"This is awkward," Cloud noted. He shifted so his forearms were braced on Zack's shoulders, giving him just enough leverage to remain a total of two inches away from Zack's face. Which was far too close. It would only take the slightest tilt on his head for their lips to meet. They could kiss like this. Cloud forgot to breathe for a moment.

"Hey, it works though!" Zack declared triumphantly, as though he was oblivious to how close their lips were.

"I doubt it would be sustainable for an ordinary person," Angeal said. He sounded slightly muffled, and Cloud blushed all over again upon thinking of the reason for that. "But with SOLDIER enhancements it is not too difficult to hold the weight of two people."

"Sure. But this is just holding, right?" Zack clarified. "In the game it was for sex. You'd have to take into account movement and stuff. Like..."

To Cloud's horror, Zack began to bounce up and down against Angeal.

"Zack!" Cloud yelped. He was already perched precariously in midair, he did not want half of his support to be jerking around like that. Not to mention  _what_  he was pretending to do... Gaia, did Zack seriously have no sense of self-consciousness at all?

That wasn't even the worst of it. They were in a sex position. A really stupid one, and it was awkward and embarrassing and all, but... they were in a sex position. One which Cloud, against all better judgement and despite the absurdity, might have gotten off to when it had come up in the context of the game. Maybe. Just a little. And now he was actually in that position, held between two SOLDIERs. It was a ridiculous, precarious position, but at the same time kind of exhilarating to trust them that way.

So far, he'd been doing a very good job of not thinking about any of that. Until now.

Bouncing like that wasn't exactly the easiest thing for Zack to do, holding both his own weight and Cloud's, and with very little leverage. His eyebrows began to furrow just slightly in concentration, and he let out little gasps of exertion that Cloud could taste against his own lips. It looked... it looked like a sex face.

And now Cloud was thinking about  _everything_  in that context. Shit. There was no way Angeal wouldn't notice if he started getting hard like this.

"Alright! Point made, put me down," Cloud demanded, an edge of desperation in his voice. "This is the  _stupidest_ position anyone's ever come up with."

Zack snorted, then laughed. An uncontrollable, full-body laugh. This was an even worse thing to do under the circumstances. Not only did Cloud struggle to keep his balance when Zack's shoulders were shaking, but now Zack was struggling to keep his grip around Angeal's waist.

Zack slipped first. He fell backwards, back hitting the carpet. Cloud landed on top of him, brought down hard by a good six foot of gravity. He'd managed to pull Angeal off balance as well as he fell. Angeal survived better, managing to catch himself on his hands as he stumbled, but he still ended up half beside and half sprawled over the other two.

"Ow!" Zack gasped, the weight of one and a half men suddenly dropping on top of him and knocking his breath out. He was still laughing, though.

"Yeah, well, you deserved that for dropping me." Cloud said. But he had to smile a little as well.

Zack's laughter was infectious, and the whole situation was thoroughly ridiculous, really. It wasn't long before both Cloud and Angeal were laughing just as much.

"So, what is your conclusion?" Angeal asked, a small smile playing at his lips.

"Hey, it seems kinda possible," Zack grinned.

"Hm." Cloud put on an expression of mock seriousness. "If I ever have a threesome, that is  _not_ the position we will be using."

Zack cracked up again.

No mention was made of the awkward boners all three ended up sporting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had quite a few reviews and questions asking about what is actually meant to be happening with this ridiculous sex position thing. To be fair, it’s a stupid-ass position, and I wasn’t all that great at describing it.
> 
> SO I DREW A LITTLE DIAGRAM FOR EVERYONE INSTEAD! :D
> 
> http://asreoninfusion.tumblr.com/post/143946408865/re-lets-play-chapter-6


	7. Chapter 7

Cloud hadn't thought anything of it when Zack invited him over for the evening. It was a pretty common thing they did, after all; him and Zack and Angeal, just hanging out. It was even somehow not awkward, despite having ended up with his ass in Commander Hewley's face that one time.

(Zack liked to remind them about it often. Apparently Cloud's embarrassed scowl was too adorable not to, and he only laughed when Cloud threatened him with pillow assault in retaliation.)

So, Cloud hadn't bothered to listen to the exact details of this invitation. Which as something he now deeply regretted.

Zack had dragged him to a different apartment. One that was not his, nor Angeal's.

Cloud was not prepared, mentally or emotionally, to walk in and find himself face to face with General Sephiroth and Commander Rhapsodos.

Zack was as exuberant as ever and seemingly oblivious to how quiet Cloud had fallen behind him. He exchanged greetings and pleasantries with the two powerful, intimidating, gorgeous SOLDIERs like they were old friends. Then he turned to introduce Cloud.

"So. Guys, this is Cloud Strife," Zack said. "Cloud, I'm sure you know Seph and Gen." He added a wink to the end of this statement, as if Cloud wasn't already horrified enough.

Cloud took a breath. "It's nice to meet you, sirs." He was calm. He was professional. He was wearing an unwashed, crumpled shirt that he'd picked up off his bedroom floor, which he attempted to smooth down. Unsuccessfully. Damn it.

"The pleasure is all ours," Genesis replied, his lips quirked into a smile. "It's good to finally meet you in person."

Oh, Gaia. That was definitely a purr in Genesis' words. Cloud had spent years listening to Genesis in the game — or, at least, a very good voice actor for him. He always had that teasing note to his voice, especially when things got heated, and the fact he  _actually sounded like that in person_  left Cloud absolutely stricken.

Cloud pretended he couldn't feel the heat creeping up into his cheeks. "Um. Meet me in person?"

"Zack and Angeal both talk about you often," Sephiroth said.

"And Sephiroth sometimes stalks your unit's training exercises so he can stare at your ass," Genesis added.

Cloud spluttered and turned bright red. He heard Zack snort beside him.

Sephiroth looked unimpressed. "That is not true."

"Oh, please. You're always down on the field."

He folded his arms. "I believe it is beneficial to evaluate the skills of all of ShinRa's ranks, especially as many of those in the infantry will later apply or be considered for entry into the SOLDIER program."

"And yet somehow it's only Strife's classes you end up observing…"

Cloud stared at the bickering First Classes. In some odd way, he felt like he knew them. He'd spent so many hours talking to them in the game, going on dates, and… being intimate. It was all just scripts and programming, Cloud knew that, but they didn't feel like strangers to him.

That he understood. The fact that he was apparently a known entity to Sephiroth and Genesis was something else entirely.

It was slightly overwhelming to think about. So Cloud decided not to. "Is Angeal around?" he asked instead.

Zack was the one to answer him. "Not yet. Should be on his way though. He went round to the store to stock up on snacks and popcorn last I heard. Five SOLDIERs plus a movie marathon requires a lotta sustenance!"

Cloud was technically not a SOLDIER yet, but he didn't bother correcting Zack's counting ability.

"Cool. What are we watching?"

Zack shrugged. "Dunno. Genesis' apartment, Genesis' pick, I guess." He leaned over to Cloud and continued in a very ineffectual stage whisper. "Ten gil on Loveless. Twenty gil you fall asleep."

"Excuse you, you uncultured swine, Loveless is a classic."

Sephiroth remained unblinking. "Forty gil that Zack is the one to fall asleep first."

Genesis sighed heavily.

Cloud grinned, then spoke without thinking. "As long as it's not Dead Zone, I'm good."

Dead Zone did not actually exist, and it immediately occurred to Cloud that he really shouldn't have mentioned it. Not in front of Sephiroth and Genesis, of all people.

It was from the game; a movie night in was one of the 'date' options available. The selection of movie could alter the value of the social link with the date character, and influenced what kinks would be available during the sex scene if the evening progressed favourably. Dead Zone was a cheap zombie thriller which, for reasons Cloud didn't particularly care to examine, resulted in a strong bias towards medical kinks. Cloud wouldn't have minded that, except for the needles. He just wasn't a fan of needles.

Sephiroth and Zack only looked blank at this statement, but Genesis slowly raised his eyebrows. "No, I agree," he said, then waved a hand dismissively. "I've spent enough time in the labs to find any such thing unpleasant by association."

Cloud snapped his mouth shut. Genesis… had actually understood what Cloud meant? He must have done; there was no other reason for him to say what he had. Which meant Genesis played the game. Enough to be familiar with obscure references. And now he was watching Cloud closely, an interested gleam in his eyes.

Shit.

Genesis gave Cloud a calculating look, then straightened. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me," he said, and promptly turned on his heel.

Zack blinked at Genesis' retreating back. "Huh? What's his problem?"

Cloud got it, though. It was a direct line of dialogue. If you selected a movie your date didn't appreciate and only had a moderate value on their social link, they would wander off. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing. Following them could unlock yet another scene, and the perverted use of kitchen utensils in the resulting sex was ingenious.

Cloud waved away Zack's concerned look and followed after Genesis like a moth to a flame.

Zack glanced at Sephiroth, who was looking equally as bemused. "Okay, do you get the feeling we're missing something here?"

"Hmm."

Genesis was setting out serving bowls on the kitchen worktop, ready for the arrival of the various snacks they would hold. He glanced up as Cloud entered and gave him a knowing look.

"I had heard rumours," Genesis said breezily. He took a dumbapple from the fruit bowl and began to cut it into slices. "They say you are quite the expert at a certain game."

Cloud paused, biting his tongue. Was he really surprised that Genesis knew about that? He'd first met Angeal because Angeal had known Cloud had a copy of the game. Original copies were pretty rare now, so it did sort of make sense that people who owned them would end up the subject of gossip and envy. Among the fans who cared about that sort of thing, anyway.

So, fine. People knew he played it a lot.  _Genesis Rhapsodos_  knew he played it a lot.

He had no idea where this was going.

"Uh. Yeah. I guess. I mean, I wouldn't say I'm an expert or anything, but I know a lot…?"

"Enough to name drop references in casual conversation."

Cloud winced. "I didn't engage my brain before opening my mouth. Sorry."

Genesis gave a small laugh. "Please. Like I would hold that against you. Actually, I believe it may make you perfect."

"For… what?"

"Are you active in the Red Leather fanclub?"

Cloud shook his head. "I'm a member," he admitted, "but being in the infantry is so hectic I never get time to keep up with whatever they're doing."

"Mm. I imagine they would be keeping it quite hush-hush anyway." Genesis glanced over to Cloud, making sure he had the infantryman's rapt attention before making his dramatic reveal. "There are talks about re-releasing the game. With additional content, of course."

The expression on Cloud's face was pure gold. He was torn between complete disbelief and something that was almost euphoria. It was adorable.

"Are… are you serious, sir?"

"Of course. Although it is only in the early stages of development at the moment. There will be minor tweaks and improvements to the gameplay, but the majority of work will be going in to expanding the options."

Genesis sauntered across the kitchen, thoroughly enjoying Cloud's wide-eyed stare. He stood himself in front of the blond, brushing a strand of Cloud's unruly hair out of his face. He let his hand linger at the nape of Cloud's neck.

"And that is where you come in."

Cloud's heart was racing. He didn't even know if it was because Genesis was fucking flirting with him or from sheer excitement at the news. A  _sequel!_

"Me?"

"They will require beta testers. They will require the input of an expert player as to what could be improved. Perhaps you could even offer some ideas with regards to the additional content included?"

Cloud's breathing stopped for a moment as he considered the weight of what he was being offered. Then he snapped into business mode. "Done. When do you need me?"

Genesis' smile widened. "Why not begin now? I have some mods for the original game that, if approved, will be included as standard for the new version."

He placed a hand on the small of Cloud's back, guiding him out of the kitchen and down a corridor. Based on the very similar layout of all the SOLDIER's apartments, Cloud guessed he was being led towards the bedroom.

Cloud was correct.

He lingered in the doorway while Genesis retrieved a laptop from the bedside table. He thought that would be it, and then Genesis would take them back to where Zack and Sephiroth were waiting, but instead Genesis settled cross-legged on top of the bed with the laptop resting on his knees. He beckoned Cloud over.

It was just to show him the game, of course. That was what Cloud needed to focus on. Not the fact that he was in Genesis Rhapsodos' bedroom, crawling onto his bed. He'd played the game enough times to know how  _that_ usually ended up.

Cloud grinned to himself a little.

"I didn't even know you could get mods for the game," Cloud said. He watched the screen intently as it booted up.

Genesis shrugged, entirely blase about the whole thing. "Usually, no, but I had these done by some of my contacts."

"What kind of contacts do you  _have?_ "

"Oh, I know a few people from the original development. Actually, I may have helped significantly in funding the enterprise. Entirely off record, of course, and using an alias. I also pointed them in the right direction on a few crucial elements." Genesis rolled his eyes for dramatic effect. "They had some ridiculous ideas about the characterisation of certain high-ranking SOLDIERs. It would have be tantamount to slander had I not stepped in."

Cloud remembered the rumours. People had always said that the game's designers had inside information from SOLDIER. And they were right. It was Genesis. It had been Genesis all along.

He wasn't even that surprised, really.

Cloud filed this information away to squeal over later, and for the moment simply nodded. "So, what did you get them to make?"

"Let's see. Two alternative - and, frankly, much more attractive - options for a suspension rig, a few more additions to the bed sets, chastity devices - I honestly don't know why that was overlooked in the first place, really, but I suppose they had a deadline and couldn't put everything in. A few general aesthetic changes. More character options. An assortment of puppy play gear for Angeal to use on his game version of Zack, at his request. Et cetera."

"What?!" Cloud spluttered in regards to the last of these.

Genesis raised an eyebrow. "You  _were_ aware that Angeal is interested in Zack?"

Cloud spluttering turned into something more like laughter. "Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss, but I just… wasn't expecting that. So, uh, that whole puppy nickname thing…?"

Genesis only smirked. He clicked over to a pre-made save file. "But this is what I want your opinion on; one of the major changes to the game. Physiological variations. So far there are sample mods for wings and tentacles."

Cloud's breath caught. "Tentacles?"

"Tentacles."

"…pass me the laptop."

It was curiously easy to play the game with Genesis watching. Cloud forgot all about his awkwardness. The game wasn't just about the sex aspect for him; it was almost more like a hobby. A passion. He could have talked for days about the technical aspects of the set-ups used and the different positions and the mechanics of the character's social links.

His whole demeanour lit up with enthusiasm as he explored the new content.

Genesis was rather invested in the game himself, and found Cloud's reaction to be thoroughly endearing.

There was intense discussion over the source of lubrication in the new tentacle sex scenes. They debated what the most erogenous zone on a wing would be. Cloud expressed his doubts over the comfort of a particular bondage chair.

Conversation came easily with their common interest, much easier than Cloud had ever imagined conversation with The Genesis Rhapsodos possibly could.

By the time Zack came to find them, Cloud was practically sitting in Genesis' lap. (It was just that it was easier for the both of them to see the screen at the same time that way. That was all.)

"Is there a value in the programming for how masochistic each character is?" Cloud was saying. "You could choose how hard to tug on the feathers as you're stroking them, and that value would determine how receptive the partner is to it."

"Do you think that would change the outcome of the scene?"

"Well, what would you do if you had a wing and someone pulled on it when you didn't want them to?"

Genesis considered this for a moment. "Firaga them in the face, I imagine," he said archly.

Cloud laughed. "I guess that would make the game more interesting, at least."

Neither of them noticed the bedroom door was now open, with a thoroughly bemused Zack standing there watching them.

"Whaaaat are you two doing?"

Cloud started. Genesis removed his hand from Cloud's waist.

"Genesis has mods for the game," Cloud said seriously.

Zack covered his mouth with his hand, hiding a snort. "You guys have been playing that sex game? All this time?"

"It hasn't been that long…?"

"Uhh, yeah, it has. We've already finished a movie without you guys. And most of the snacks."

Genesis gently shifted Cloud off, then leveled a hard stare at Zack. "I hope that 'most' does not include my 90% dark cocoa-coated imported Brazil nuts."

"Not… all of them."

Genesis sighed and stood. He raised a hand. "Firaga to the face is a specialty of mine," he said to Cloud, as if continuing their previous conversation. His voice was dangerously light.

Zack bolted.


	8. Chapter 8

Cloud stood awkwardly in the corridor. He was not meant to be there, really. An infantryman, on the SOLDIER's private floor? They'd think he was just being a stalkerish fanboy.

He'd grown out of that phase, thank you very much. Mostly, anyway.

He was actually there by invitation, from Genesis Rhapsodos, no less. A release date had been announced for the updated version of the game. Development was in full swing, and Cloud's unofficial position as a beta tester was in high demand. Genesis had the latest update for Cloud to work through.

Except Genesis wasn't at home and Cloud was left standing in front of his door, praying to Shiva that no one would come along before he got out of there. The last thing he needed was a week's worth of extra guard duty for trespassing.

Apparently, Shiva wasn't listening. Cloud heard footsteps approaching from the end of the corridor; from the direction he'd wanted to leave, of course. Just his luck. He desperately checked his PHS again, in case Genesis had sent a message saying he would be late. Something he could use as proof of his story. Nothing.

Cloud snapped to attention as the SOLDIER rounded the corner. Then his shoulders sank in relief. It was Sephiroth. (And how weird that it being Sephiroth and not someone of a lesser rank was a relief now.)

"Good evening, Cloud," Sephiroth greeted, with a polite nod of his head.

"Good evening, sir."

Sephiroth had given Cloud permission to use his name weeks ago, but, while they were both in uniform and in an area where other SOLDIERs could potentially witness them, Cloud thought it best to stick to protocol.

Sephiroth noted the door Cloud was standing in front of and put two and two together. "If you are waiting for Genesis, I'm afraid he has been delayed by complications in his latest mission."

"That's okay, I guessed as much. I'll just come back later."

Cloud made a start of leaving, but slowed to halt again when Sephiroth opened his mouth. They both paused, uncertain.

"He should not be long. If you wanted to wait, you are welcome to come to my apartment in the meantime."

Cloud's brain spluttered to a halt. Sephiroth had just invited him round? That… that was big. Sephiroth valued his privacy and personal space - it was an unspoken but widely acknowledged truth that any of their get-togethers or movie nights were held at either Angeal's or Genesis' apartment, or even Zack's on occasion, but never Sephiroth's. Even the others had only been in a handful of times.

"Thanks. That would be nice," Cloud agreed. His voice came out hoarse.

Sephiroth tapped his fingers against his thigh, nodded, then beckoned for Cloud to follow him as he led the way.

All of their apartments were situated on the same floor, taking up almost the entirety of it together. It was only a turn down another corridor and a short walk to get to Sephiroth's door. Not nearly long enough for Cloud to quieten the butterflies in his stomach.

The layout inside was much the same as any other SOLDIER's apartment, if slighter larger. Too large, it seemed. The minimal furniture and decoration barely filled the space, and there were no homey touches or signs of it being lived in. It looked more like a display home.

"I apologise. I know it is not very inviting."

Cloud shook his head. "It's fine."

"The kitchen is stocked, at least. Do you want anything to drink?"

"Maybe just a glass of water?"

There was an island counter in the center of the kitchen with two stools on the far side. Cloud sat down.

He watched Sephiroth as he moved around the kitchen. His home fit him. Not so much the Sephiroth Cloud knew, but the Sephiroth ShinRa wanted him to be. Functional, and nothing else. Lacking in any small flaws or little touches of humanity. It wasn't hard to see why he preferred to spend his time elsewhere.

Cloud started to ponder what he could get Sephiroth to liven the place up. Flowers? Art? Kitschy decorations? But, then again, he was sure Genesis and Angeal and especially Zack must have tried it all before. (Cloud could entirely understand throwing out any decoration  _Zack_  tried to give him.)

His thoughts were interrupted as Sephiroth set a glass down in front of him. He sat down next to Cloud with a glass of his own, something strangely fermented and fizzy.

"I sent a message to Genesis to let him know where you are. He will inform us when he is in the immediate area."

Sephiroth gave Cloud a small, encouraging smile. It was a dorky sort of smile that he could guarantee no one had ever seen on the recruitment posters.

Cloud's heart lurched a little. He might have been over his fanboy phase after (somehow, miraculously) becoming part of the First Class SOLDIER's little friend group, but he was pretty sure it was impossible to ever get over how attractive Sephiroth really was. He'd finally be getting comfortable around him when suddenly, bam. Sephiroth would give him one of those small smiles, or he'd look at Cloud with those ridiculously long eyelashes lowered, and Cloud's stomach would flip again.

Sephiroth was a person and a friend to him now, and not just some distant idol on a fragile pedestal, but, either way, Cloud was still crushing fucking  _hard_.

Cloud groaned and hung his head over his glass. It wouldn't even have been so bad if that was the only crush he had. But it wasn't, not by a long shot. The whole thing was a mess.

Sephiroth frowned. "Is that not acceptable…?"

"No, no. Sorry. It's fine. I was just thinking about something else." Cloud paused. He was already on a roll with stupid lines of thinking today, what was one more bad idea? He loved his training and his work in the infantry, he loved being able to work on the game, he loved having friends for what felt like the first time in forever. But he was so, so done with the amount of romantic drama in his head. He took a sip of water to steady himself. "Can I ask you something?"

Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow. "I am sure you can."

"I need relationship advice."

Sephiroth's other eyebrow twitched up to join the first. He seemed partially bewildered by the request, and partially amused at the sheer irony of it. "I am not renowned for my understanding of interpersonal relationships, Cloud. Logical reasoning and tactics are far more my forte."

"No, I know that. But maybe that's exactly what I need. Some good hard logic to cut through the amount of bullshit reasoning I've got going on in my head. If nothing else, it's a different perspective, right?"

"...I suppose so."

Cloud spun round on his stool to face Sephiroth, even though he could already feel the heat starting to creep up into his face. This was an awful idea. He spoke quickly, before he could talk himself out of it. "The thing is… I like more than one person. I'm romantically interested in them, I mean. And I know they're interested in each other. They… might be interested in me as well, I'm not really sure. I think so."

"This is about Zack and Angeal, correct?"

Yep. Cloud was definitely blushing now. "Yes," he reluctantly confirmed.

"That is not a difficult solution. If all parties experience mutual attraction and are amenable to the idea, a polyamorous relationship is obvious."

Cloud gaped.

"I am certain Angeal would not be opposed. He has been in such a relationship with myself and Genesis, although ours is more casual and an intermittent occurrence. I am uncertain of Zack's stance on the matter. Your own feelings you will know."

"That's… I mean, that's…"

"Logical."

Cloud laughed for a moment. "Yeah. I guess it is. Gaia."

"Then is that your problem solved?"

"Well… no. Because I can't just ask Angeal to leave like that. If he's with you and Genesis…"

"As I said, the relationship is casual. We have no claim on him if he were to choose to enter a more serious relationship. Angeal can make his own decisions."

"I know, but… it's more complicated than that. I've started hanging out with Genesis a lot recently as well, and, fuck. I like him too."

Sephiroth considered this for a moment. "I  _have_  noted that he markedly enjoys your company."

"And I-" Cloud interrupted himself halfway through his sentence, stumbling over the words as he abruptly changed what he was going to say. "I don't want either of them to leave you. You deserve to be happy too."

That, however, Sephiroth didn't reply to. It was always thoroughly bizarre to him when people said he deserved to be  _happy_. He was a SOLDIER. A weapon. Happiness was not something he factored in.

"Perhaps," Sephiroth began. He frowned, fitting the pieces together in his head. "Wait here a moment."

Sephiroth left the kitchen, and Cloud took the opportunity to bury his face in his hands. What the hell had he been  _thinking_ , confessing to Sephiroth like that? Sephiroth, of all people! Nice going, Strife.

Barely a minute later, Sephiroth returned. He had a laptop with him, and placed it on the kitchen counter between them. He flicked through a few menus and booted up- oh, hell no. That was the game. That was  _the_  game. Cloud's eyes went wide. Fuck.

"You… you've  _played_  that?!"

Cloud had no idea why this thought terrified him. It wasn't like he'd had anything to do with creating the game (the original one, anyway). But somehow he was afraid that Sephiroth would blame the whole thing on him. And if he did, Cloud was so, so dead.

Sephiroth's lips pressed thin. "I played once. At Genesis' insistence. And then once more to test the restrictions of the programming; it was an algorithmic challenge far more than 'playing'. I will grudgingly accept the game's existence, but I do not approve of it."

Cloud felt his heart sink. "But there was something you wanted to show me…?"

"Yes. The programming restrictions. I was able to find the right formula to overcome them."

Cloud had no idea how this was relevant, or where Sephiroth was going with this.

He opened one of the files, a save that had been written at the perfect time. It only took a few clicks to instigate a scene.

Cloud had seen plenty of the sex scenes in the game before. There were a set number of them - a very high number, but finite. The same scenes could be repeated, placing different models in the positions for variation. But this one Cloud had never found.

For a start, there were five people involved. Five? That was supposed to be impossible.

And then he realised who the five people were. Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth… Zack, and then...him. The model was clearly meant to be him.

The five of them. Together.

Oh.

Sephiroth stared at Cloud, unblinking. "Yourself, Zack and Angeal all have mutual interest. Angeal, Genesis and myself have a previously established relationship. Zack has been a good friend to me, and, as annoying as he may be on occasion, he is admittedly very attractive in both physical respects and his personality. I would not be opposed to a more intimate relationship with him, although I cannot say if he feels the same about me. Likewise, I am uncertain where the relationship between Genesis and Zack lies, though I doubt it is unfavourable."

Cloud was having difficulty following Sephiroth's reasoning. He hadn't even got his head round the concept yet. "Are you seriously suggesting…?"

"As for yourself and I…" Was Cloud imagining it, or did Sephiroth actually look slightly nervous? "I find you a very attractive young man, and would welcome the opportunity to get to know you in a more romantic manner."

Oh, Gaia. Cloud felt like he'd had all of the air knocked out of him.

Sephiroth frowned at his silence. "However, I understand if you do not wish to-"

Cloud leaned forward and kissed him.

Sephiroth remained still for a moment, surprised by the sudden move. Cloud had surprised himself just as much. But their lips were pressed together, and Cloud forgot about everything else, because _holy shit_ he was kissing Sephiroth, and Sephiroth was kissing him back.

Sephiroth's hands braced against Cloud's hips, leaning his weight in. Cloud parted his lips for Sephiroth, and moaned when he deepened the kiss.

Neither of them noticed the sound of the front door opening.

"Finally, some  _progress!_ " Genesis cheered a moment later, leaning against the kitchen doorway.

Cloud started and jerked away. Sephiroth withdrew with much more grace, sighing as though he had been interrupted by Genesis many times before.

"While I would be perfectly happy to watch you two make out a bit more, I do unfortunately need my beta tester back now. We have a deadline approaching."

"Oh. Right. Yes. Sorry." Cloud stumbled as he hopped up from the stool, over both his feet and his words, his face turning a bright pink again.

Genesis smirked. It was adorable.

"You can have him back when I'm done," Genesis reassured Sephiroth, who was looking minorly irritated at this point. He wrapped an arm around Cloud's waist in readiness to escort him out.

Sephiroth gave a small huff of acknowledgement.

"I'll, uhm. See you later," Cloud said. Sephiroth nodded in return.

Genesis turned and winked at Sephiroth as they left.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More progress! Mostly on the Clack front this time round. Also a bit of in-game NSFW at the start featuring Cloudgeal and tentacles, but it's not like it's a plot point or anything, I just wanted some tentacle sex you know how it is. Point being, you can easily skip over it if tentacles aren't your thing. XP Then it's all fluff from there.

Cloud's face was flushed, sweat-slick bangs tossed back in sex-mussed disarray. Pink, kiss-swollen lips were parted in helpless pleasure. Every gasp, every moan, every cry he made, all of them were clearly audible, and clearly sexual.

His arms were above his head, gripping the bars of the headboard. Angeal's hands were braced on either side of him as the larger man arched above him, and Gaia, it was such a gorgeous sight. Cloud's legs were parted wide with Angeal between them.

Thick, sinuous tentacles were wrapped around Cloud's thighs, holding him in place. They matched Angeal's skin tone perfectly, dotted with dark little ring-like markings. The muscle in them roiled just beneath the surface as the tentacles snaked over Cloud, around him, inside him.

One of the tentacles was wrapped tight around Cloud's aching erection, stroking him. It was blissful torture. He wanted it so bad, but there was no way he could release while that damn cock ring was holding him back.

Cloud whimpered.

And then- oh, Hel. There were the tentacles inside him. Two of them, curling around each other, thrusting in turn. He was stretched so wide to take them. It felt so good, he could barely breathe.

The door behind him creaked open.

"Hey, Cloud!" Zack Fair greeted. "I know we said pizza tonight, but that burger place you used to love has just reopened under new management and what the actual fuck are you doing now."

Cloud thought he heard a plastic bag rustle as it dropped to the floor by Zack's side. He gave a small nod and vague noise of greeting, but didn't make any move to cover up what he was doing.

Zack took it as a sign that Cloud didn't mind him walking in on it.

Too insatiably curious to stand on any sense of propriety, Zack leaned over the back of the sofa to get a better view of exactly what was happening on the screen of Cloud's laptop. (It was a new laptop, he noted. A nice one at that, and with good enough specs to handle graphic-intensive games with ease. Zack remembered Cloud saying something about Genesis getting it for him for 'work'.)

"Okay. I have played that game almost as much as you, and I swear to Shiva I have never seen  _that_  before."

Cloud laughed. "It's for the new version."

"Ohh, right. You were doing something with that."

"Beta testing. Wanna help?"

"Um."

Cloud patted a spot on the couch next to him. Zack sat down, mildly hypnotised.

On screen, Cloud's avatar arched and gave a short scream as the tentacles found his prostate. Angeal leaned down and drew Cloud into a fierce kiss, swallowing his desperate noises.

Zack glanced at Cloud out of the corner of his eye. How could the kid keep a straight face? Damn. It was just a bunch of images in a game, but…  _damn_.

"So, uhh." Zack cleared his throat. "This why you've been too busy to hang out recently?"

Cloud gave a small, guilty start. For the first time that evening, he drew his attention away from the game to actually look at Zack. "Oh. I… shit. Yeah. The deadline is next week, and I got so caught up trying to make sure everything's perfect for the release… I didn't mean to ignore you, I just-"

Zack gave him a gentle nudge. "Hey! It's okay, I wasn't complaining. You've got shit to do too."

Cloud wasn't reassured. His frown deepened. "I never even got round to replying to your messages."

"Which is why I came round with snacks, but as long as you're okay, it's all good!"

"I'm such a shitty friend."

"That's not-"

Zack was cut off by another scream from the laptop. Fuck. Cloud was coming, and he looked absolutely gorgeous in the midst of his orgasm, all tied down and trembling.

He would look even more gorgeous in reality, pinned beneath Zack.

Zack shook the thought off, and tried not to stare awkwardly at the screen.

Cloud was frowning, utterly unaffected. "Wait. Did you see anyone take the cock ring off? I think it just vanished between screens. That's a continuity error…" He jotted a note down on the pad of paper next to him.

The corner of Zack's mouth twitched. He didn't mean to laugh, he honestly didn't, but it bubbled up before he could help it (and laughing was a better option than the only other place his mind was going). He collapsed into a heap of sniggers.

"What's funny now?"

"Sorry," Zack wheezed. "It's just- ahahaha- you have no idea how  _adorable_  you are."

Cloud wasn't sure whether he should be insulted or flattered. He was leaning towards the latter. He rolled his eyes at Zack, although Zack was too busy holding his sides and hiccuping to notice.

"You take it so seriously." Zack wiped a mock tear from his eye. "I mean, that's a good thing. You're so hard-working and earnest, y'know? But it's just that it's over a sex game this time, and that is the cutest thing."

"...You're weird, you know that."

"Says the guy with Angeal's tentacles up his ass."

"They're nice tentacles," Cloud shrugged.

Zack snorted. He sniggered a few times, but managed not to lose it completely again. "Adorable," he repeated.

Having got to a convenient stopping point, Cloud saved his game and shut the laptop. Even if Zack said it was fine, Cloud still felt bad about the lack of time he'd had for Zack recently. He still had several more scenes to check, but… he could do it later.

"You said something about that burger joint?"

* * *

 

"Why would you even  _do_  that," Cloud said, choking on laughter.

"I have no idea, man. He must have thought it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Do chocobos even like barbeque sauce?"

"Apparently. They also liked Captain Berkley's trousers. I think those birds will eat anything."

"Oh, a bit like you then."

"I can safely say that I have never eaten any item of clothing belonging to my subordinates, covered in barbeque sauce or otherwise" Zack said seriously.

"But superior officers are fair game, is that what you're saying?"

Zack elbowed him. "Don't you be cheeky, Corporal Strife."

Cloud laughed. He hadn't realised how much he'd missed this. It hadn't been long, really. A week or two, maybe. But spending time with Zack was just so  _fun_. Conversation was easy (and often ridiculous), the sort that didn't leave him struggling for words and feeling drained afterwards. They clicked. They had always clicked.

The only thing missing that evening was Angeal, or even Sephiroth and Genesis. Cloud couldn't say that he had clicked with  _them_ immediately, but he enjoyed their company now. Angeal's especially, since he was the one Cloud had known the longest outside of Zack. And Genesis, who he was spending long hours with at the moment, working on the shared love that was their game. And Sephiroth… he hadn't spent quite so long with Sephiroth, but he wanted to. Of all of them, Sephiroth was the only one he had ever kissed.

The memory still made his heart beat faster. He'd kissed Sephiroth. And Gaia, he wanted to do it again.

Except not just Sephiroth. There were moments when he wanted to kiss all of them. When Zack laughed like that, when Angeal got that adorable frown of concern, when Genesis pulled Cloud into his lap so they could work on something on his laptop together.

After his conversation with Sephiroth, he couldn't get the image of all five of them together out of his head. It felt selfish. He hadn't even had a friend for so many years in Nibelheim, who was he to think he deserved a boyfriend at all? Never mind four.

But then Zack took his hand and smiled at him, and Cloud wanted to be exactly that selfish.

"Ice cream for dessert? My treat," Zack asked, tugging Cloud across the road already. He knew the answer without having had to ask.

It was getting pretty late, and on a weekday night, so the ice cream parlour wasn't very crowded. They were free to go straight to the counter and place their orders. Zack took a triple scoop chocolate monstrosity over to a secluded table in the corner, and Cloud was right behind him with his own strawberry and chopped nut whip.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Zack asked after a few minutes of digging in. He had noticed Cloud's distraction.

Cloud's lips twitched up in amusement. "Well, firstly, you have a chocolate moustache."

"And you have strawberry syrup on your nose, but I wasn't gonna say anything."

Cloud stuck his tongue out, but rubbed the tip of his nose clean anyway. It gave him a useful cover while he considered his next move.

He knew what he wanted now. Was he really bold enough to go after it, though? Fuck.

Cloud began slowly. "And secondly, I was thinking… it's just funny. Doesn't this feel like a date?"

"What?" Zack blinked for a moment, then ran his hand awkwardly through his hair. "Ah, shit. I guess it kind of does, if you look at it like that, but that wasn't my intention, honest! I mean, if it makes you uncomfortable we can just get take out next time or-"

"No, I," Cloud took a breath. "I like it. I'd like to. Go on a date with you."

"...Cloud?"

"I'm sorry. I thought… I mean, Angeal and Sephiroth and Genesis, they've all hinted that you might be interested in me, and I'm, um."

Cloud sighed internally, annoyed at himself. One day he'd figure out how to say this kind of stuff without blushing like a moron and tripping over his words. Today was not that day, but damn it. He was trying his best.

"I'm interested. In you."

Zack's hand covered Cloud's on the table.

"But then I know you were interested in Angeal too, so if you'd rather go after him then I understand."

"Huh," Zack said. "I always thought  _you_  were interested in Angeal."

"Maybe we both are. Who wouldn't be?"

Zack chuckled. He made no move to deny it.

Cloud raised his head. Zack made to draw his hand away, but Cloud twined their fingers together. "I was thinking… actually, no, it wasn't me. I asked Sephiroth for advice."

"Wait- relationship advice? Sephiroth? He's a great guy and all, but uh…"

"I'm telling him you doubt his dating skills," Cloud threatened. "But it was actually a good idea, what he suggested. Maybe. If you're okay with the idea, and it's totally cool if you're not or if you need time to think about it or something, but just as a possibility…"

The corner of Zack's mouth curled up into a small smile. "Spit it out, Cloud."

"What if all of us were together."

"All of us?"

"You, and me, and Angeal." To start with, at least.

"You'd... want to do that?"

"Yeah. I really like you both, and you guys like each other, right?"

Zack nodded slowly. "I guess… I mean, I'd never really considered anything like that, but the idea has merits. Have you talked to Angeal about this?"

"Not yet."

"Well, I can guarantee he does like you, at least. Especially after you shoved your ass in his face that time."

" _Zack!_  That was your damn fault," Cloud hissed.

Zack laughed. He used their entwined hands to pull Cloud against him, and buried his free hand into Cloud's hair. "You are too cute, you know that? I… shit. Yeah. I would love to go on a date with you."

Cloud smiled where he was buried against Zack's shoulder. Zack was always the kind of person to be giving out hugs and physical affection, but this felt… more deliberate, somehow. "Well, we're pretty much on one already. We just need to something to make it more officially date-like."

"Like what?"

Cloud shifted his weight, so he was still against Zack, but almost sitting in his lap. His face was at equal height to Zack's now, and they were close enough for their noses to brush together. Cloud could feel his breath quicken. The way Zack was looking at him made his stomach flip.

"Like whatever you want to do," Cloud breathed.

What Zack wanted to do was to bring their lips together, and Cloud could not have been more pleased.

The kiss was soft at first, gentle, exploratory. But that didn't last. Both of them had wanted this for a long time;  _such_  a long time, even if they hadn't admitted it. And now they finally had their hands on each other, their mouths pressed together, it was impossible not to want it all the more.

The kiss deepened, and Zack's lips were firm and insistent against Cloud's, and Cloud was pretty sure this was heaven. Zack's arms wrapped around Cloud's waist, and Cloud's hands buried into Zack's hair. Zack's tongue stroked against the inside of Cloud's mouth in a way that made them both tremble.

Cloud was panting when they broke apart. "You taste like chocolate," he laughed softly.

Zack grinned and pulled him back in, kissing him hard.

And speaking of hard… Cloud was blushing by the time they came up for air again. He surreptitiously glanced around the room, realising what a terrible display of public affection they were putting on. Thankfully, there was no one to notice, other than a waitress who gave them only a passing look of curiosity. Still.

Cloud slid out of Zack's lap and did his best to adjust his trousers. Zack laughed and gently squeezed his hand.

"T-the ice cream's melting," Cloud said.

Zack nodded his head solemnly, though he cracked into a grin halfway through. "It would be a terrible thing to waste such delicious ice cream."

"Hey, Zack? When we're done here, do you want to come back to my place, maybe?"

Zack slowly raised an eyebrow, and Cloud punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Not like  _that!_  I mean. Maybe like that. I just, uh. Wanted to make out a little bit more. Somewhere less public."

"Sure," Zack grinned. "I could live with a little bit more making out."

Cloud kept their hands clasped together beneath the table the whole time they were finishing their ice creams.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bonus celebratory chapter inspired by the official announcement of a FFVII remake!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's doing celebratory art and stuff for the announcement of the FFVII remake, so I thought I should do some celebratory writing. And then I thought, hey, sex game verse has a remade version of a game being a thing! What a perfect tie in!
> 
> So, this is sex game verse part 9.5. Set a while after Zack and Cloud have become official boyfriends (and have evidently been doing some stuff, given how kinda shameless Cloud is now lol) and when the news of the remastered game just went public. ;3
> 
> I wrote this in about an hour while I was waiting for the Squeenix conference (no new info, boo) so it's just kinda fluffy and dumb, heh.

 

Zack stood in the doorway and blinked. He glanced at Angeal, who was reading moderately calmly. He glanced at Sephiroth, who was paying an equal lack of attention, but with the air of someone who was specifically trying to avoid doing so.

Cloud and Genesis were on separate sofas, either side of the room, but both were sat at their laptops in fits of utter rapture.

"What did I miss?" Zack asked, bemused.

"Shove a Buster Sword up my ass!" Cloud crowed, reading a post off the screen.

"Please don't," Angeal said calmly, not looking up from his book.

Cloud laughed, and it was a sound that made Zack's heart melt. He'd never seen the kid so excited about anything. Heck, he'd never seen Genesis so excited about anything either. Passionate, yes, especially when it came to Loveless, but this time it seemed Cloud's level of child-like glee was infectious.

He remembered how rarely Cloud used to smile, before they first met. And how he still tried to shut himself off sometimes, when he was upset or hurt or lost. Now Cloud was smiling so wide it made Zack's mouth hurt just to look at him, and even if it was just for a few moments that Cloud forgot himself, Zack was so glad he was happy.

Wasn't going to stop him from being nosy, though.

Zack wedged himself into the gap between Cloud and the arm of the sofa. "What's all the excitement about?"

Cloud shifted almost subconsciously, leaning his shoulder into Zack. "They made the announcement," he said.

Seeing Zack's somewhat blank look, Genesis called over to clarify. "For the remake of the game, you understand."

"Eh? You've been working on that for ages though."

"Of course  _we_  have. This is the first time the vast majority of the fans have heard about it though."

Zack peered over Cloud's shoulder at his screen. It seemed to be open to several tabs of fanclub sites, forums, and newsletters. "So, why are you guys…?"

"Their reactions are  _gold_ ," Genesis purred. He had the most self-satisfied grin on his face, loving every bit of his online attention.

"And you two?" Zack continued, looking over at Sephiroth and Angeal.

Sephiroth grunted. "Pretending it doesn't exist, for most the part."

"I've played it already. The hype doesn't bother me."

"Cloud's played it already. The hype's bothering him."

Cloud elbowed Zack. "Shut up. This game was my life as a kid, you don't even understand. I didn't really have any friends in Nibelheim… from like, age fourteen until I enlisted at sixteen, that game was my only social interaction."

"No wonder you turned out such a kinky little shit."

Cloud stuck his tongue out. He turned back to his laptop, spent barely a minute scrolling, then was laughing in delight again.

"Genesis!" he called. "Have you seen this reaction video yet?"

Zack wrapped an arm around Cloud's shoulders, pulling him in to rest against Zack's side while he continued searching. He ruffled a hand through Cloud's hair. "Okay, not that you're not adorable and all, but really, what are you so excited for? You've known about this forever. I know Genesis is just excited at having his ego stoked some more, but you…"

"Everyone's so happy," Cloud said with a small shrug. "It makes me happy too."

"Cloud…"

"Mm?"

"You are really fucking adorable, you know that?"

Cloud turned to face Zack, probably to deny the accusation or protest at being called adorable, but Zack leaned in and kissed him first.

Cloud didn't mind. His mood could only be described as extremely responsive, pouring all his happiness and excitement into the way he moved his lips against Zack's, the way he turned to crawl into Zack's lap, the way he pressed their bodies together.

Zack leaned back to squint at him. "Have you been drinking?"

Cloud shrugged. "Only a tiny bit, just to celebrate. I'm not tipsy or anything. Besides, I'm legal, and Angeal was here so you know he was totally chaperoning."

"You seem very…"

Cloud nuzzled against Zack's neck. "I'm happy."

He rolled his hips against Zack's, and Zack made a small noise in the back of his throat. "Damn. I need to make you happy more often."

"Pfft. You already do, dork."

"Whatever, chocobo."

So, maybe Zack kind of forgot that he wasn't actually in his own living room. And that there were three other First Class SOLDIERs in the immediate vicinity. In all fairness, with the way Cloud was kissing him, there wasn't much room in his brain for anything else.

He slid his hands down the back of Cloud's pants.

Genesis whistled from the other side of the room. The two of them had managed to attract Sephiroth and Angeal's attention as well. Angeal was trying to pretend that he wasn't interested, but he had been reading the same page since the two younger men had started kissing, so it was fairly obvious his attention was elsewhere. Sephiroth was watching outright, with an expression somewhere between puzzled and calculating.

"Uh," Zack said.

"Would you like to use the bedroom?" Genesis said. The offer was made kindly enough, but the smirk on his face said otherwise.

"Would you try and watch if we did?"

"Probably."

"Then no."

"I wouldn't mind," said Cloud.

Zack paused for a second, eyebrows raised. Cloud's face was flushed, but Zack didn't think it was from embarrassment. Or not entirely, anyway. "Kinky little shit," he accused mildly. "And here I thought you were all shy and innocent."

"Never. Or, well… only with public affection anyway. And doing new stuff when I don't know how someone's gonna react. And…"

Zack kissed him again. "I love you exactly the way you are."

Shit. He hadn't meant–

That was the first time he'd told Cloud he loved him. The first time as more than a friend. He'd kinda been planning a more romantic moment.

Cloud was looking at him like he'd momentarily forgotten how to breathe. Then he stood up.

"Genesis, we're using your bedroom."

They were gone before Genesis had even had time to insist they clean up after themselves. Instead, he contented himself with smiling at his fellow Firsts. "Well. This seems to have been a successful evening."

Angeal was looking mildly conflicted, torn between being more interested in the interaction than was perhaps entirely honourable, and wanting to allow the pair of lovers their privacy.

Genesis put his laptop aside in favour of going to stand in front of Angeal's armchair. He leaned down and kissed the man. "I'm feeling rather happy this evening as well," he purred.

"Genesis–"

Angeal's reply was cut off by Sephiroth. He had appeared behind Genesis, wrapping an arm like an iron brace around the offending redhead's chest and forcibly removing him from Angeal's affections.

"Do you enjoy creating mischief?" Sephiroth questioned, sounding exasperated.

He honestly didn't know what he had expected, catching Genesis in such a mood. Genesis twisted in his grip until their fronts were pressed together. It was evident Genesis was either happy in a very specific way, or had been gaining a little too much enjoyment from watching Zack and Cloud make out. But then, Sephiroth was half-hard as well.

Genesis' grin widened. "I know you're not interested in the game… but how about we go and  _celebrate_  anyway?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today we have an Angeal and Genesis chapter! Sickeningly sweet fluff! I really should be working on my cosplay why the hell did I decide now was a good time to write more fic! 
> 
> It's a fairly short chapter this time... there's slight talk of plot (ha, what plot) progression, but also I don't think we've actually seen the relationship between these two before, so I wanted to cover that a little as well.

"You seem awfully quiet," Genesis noted.

Angeal grunted as he beheaded an onion. "I think you're just particularly perky this evening. I only seem quiet by comparison."

Genesis was, as suggested, feeling particularly perky. He propped himself against the kitchen counter near where Angeal was preparing dinner. "But of course. The game is released in just a few days now. The anticipation is electric," he said, eyes bright with impatient expectation.

Angeal's mouth twitched up into an involuntary smile, fond but exasperated at the same time.

"I do hope someone writes a poetic ode to the beauty of my ass again."

" _Genesis_."

Genesis laughed. But although Angeal was humouring him, Genesis could tell his heart wasn't in it. He was still distracted.

Angeal finished dicing the onions and scraped them into the pot on the stovetop with robotic efficiency. He moved on to the carrots. Genesis placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You  _are_ quiet tonight, though. Tell me what's wrong."

Angeal hesitated a moment too long before answering. "Nothing's wrong."

Genesis gave a quiet snort. His other hand joined the first on Angeal's shoulders, massaging the muscle there. Angeal sighed and shifted his weight into the touch.

He was tense, but no more than would be expected after a decent amount of training. That was right; Angeal had been training with Zack earlier. Zack. Genesis paused on that thought.

"How was your training session this morning?" he asked, a small purr in his voice. He knew very well how Angeal felt about Zack, after all.

"It was fine," came the short reply.

"Only fine? But you were training with the puppy; you always have something to say about his talent and improvements."

Angeal gave a light shrug, nothing to add.

Genesis continued the backrub while Angeal chopped his way through the carrots and several potatoes, humming quietly to himself. "Did something happen with Zack?" he suggested.

Angeal tensed under his hands.

"Oh, so something  _did_ happen with Zack."

"Genesis, nothing happened. Can we drop this?"

"Absolutely not."

"Pass me a tin of tomatoes, would you?"

Genesis sighed dramatically, but made the trip to the cupboard to retrieve the requested item. He would simply have to remain patient. Angeal was not the sort to keep secrets; Genesis knew that. He would let Genesis know what was eating at him soon enough, and Genesis would do his best to help if it were within his power to. That was how it had always been, ever since they were children growing up together in Banora.

He took the liberty of opening the tin for Angeal before passing it over. Angeal nodded his thanks.

They both remained quiet while Angeal began compiling the first the ingredients for his stew. The onions were softened and chunks of meat nicely browned before Angeal spoke again.

"Zack and I had lunch in the cafeteria afterwards. Cloud was there too…"

"Oh, yes. How are the two precious lovebirds?"

Was Angeal  _jealous?_  It was certainly possible in the situation, but Angeal was more honourable than that.

"They asked me to join them."

Genesis broke into a slow grin. He was seemingly unsurprised by this development, if possibly a little bit too pleased by it. His expression lit up with anticipation, but Angeal cut him off swiftly.

"I turned them down."

"What?" Genesis spluttered. " _Why?_ You've had your eye on Zack for  _years!_ And I know you're enamoured with Cloud as well - no, don't deny it, it's beyond obvious, you know. They just offered you everything you wanted; how could you possibly turn them down?"

"Gen, stop being dramatic."

He waved a the request away dismissively, but dropped the overly theatrical tone. His hand came to rest on Angeal's bicep in a comforting touch instead. "Do you think you made the right decision?"

"I don't  _know_ , Genesis."

Angeal added the stock to the pot. Some of it sloshed over the side, betraying his agitation.

"Why did you turn them down?" This time the question was genuine. It was clearly bothering Angeal, and, whatever else may be said about Genesis, he did not like to see his close friends suffer. "It can't be because of the number of partners, surely. You've been with myself and Sephiroth often enough."

"Exactly."

Genesis cocked his head. "What, were you worried about us? That's sweet of you, but you know we've always had an open relationship. Sephiroth and I have both had other relationships, we would hardly begrudge you for doing the same. Especially not if it was with those two."

The last of the ingredients were added into the stew. Angeal put the lid on the top of the pot and set it to a slow simmer. With nothing left to distract him, he turned to face Genesis.

"Do you really think you mean so little to me?" Angeal said softly.

"Hm?"

"Yes, I want Zack, and Cloud. But never so much that I would leave you."

"Why, Angeal," Genesis purred, "it almost sounds like you care."

Angeal shook his head in exasperation. How could Genesis not know? "Of course I…"

He trailed off when he saw the look on Genesis' face. Angeal couldn't work out the expression, even after all these years of being with him - he saw contentment, a note of teasing, and a strange, almost vulnerable tenderness beneath that smile. But then Genesis cupped Angeal's jaw and kissed him firmly, and Angeal forgot what he was worrying for.

Genesis had always been a passionate lover. His lips were warm and insistent against Angeal's, expressing his affection in physical touches rather than words.

Even when he finally drew away from the kiss, he kept his hands on Angeal in an absent-minded caress.

"Two things," Genesis said. "Firstly, it's worth asking the boys if they'd still be interested if you were in an open relationship. Be with them  _and_ us."

Angeal shook his head, but there was a warm smile pulling at the corners of his lips. "Really? You make it sound so simple."

"Secondly. How long is that stew going to take?"

"…at least two hours?" Angeal answered, clearly not quite understanding the relevance of this particular question.

Genesis' smile turned wicked. "Good. Plenty of time…" He trailed off, answering the unspoken question of 'for what?' by kissing Angeal again. Just as passionately as before, and this time with obvious intent. Angeal's arms shifted to hold Genesis with the same reverence and desire Genesis was holding him.

Angeal groaned. "Genesis…"

"I want to thank you," Genesis purred.

"For what?"

"For  _caring_ , you dumb, gorgeous beefcake."

Angeal seemed somewhat bewildered by this. Genesis shook his head and dragged Angeal towards the bedroom, kissing the confused little frown from his boyfriend's face. Genesis had never quite got the hang of saying 'I love you', but he had other ways to prove it.


	12. Chapter 12

Cloud walked into the living room wearing only his boxers and a loose, oversized t-shirt. His hair was even more messy than usual, and he carried an exhausted demeanour than suggested he hadn't managed to sleep for more than a few hours, despite it being close to nine in the morning.

Genesis and Zack both turned to stare at him.

Genesis cooed at the adorable sight Cloud made. Zack's lips twitched, like he wanted to do much the same, but he was actually serious for once. As cute as Cloud was, he didn't want to get distracted.

"Yeah," Zack said in continuation of the previous conversation between himself and Genesis. "You can see where I'm coming from though, can't you."

Cloud blinked, gradually waking up enough to notice the air of uneasy tension in the room. "Wha's goin' on?" he mumbled.

"Your boyfriend is jealous of me."

Zack rolled his eyes, but his smile was the most strained Cloud had ever seen it. "I'm trying really, really hard not to be, but I'm only human. And..."

And Cloud had just spent the night in another man's bed. Not to mention the state he was in at the moment. Shit. No wonder Zack was none too happy with the situation.

The sinking feeling in Cloud's stomach woke him up in an instant.

Zack had been away on a mission until stupid o'clock last night, so Cloud had spent the evening with Genesis instead. The updated version of the game had been released, and they'd celebrated with a few drinks and taking the chance to play the result of everyone's hard work. It was nice just to play the game for  _fun_  again, without having to keep a constant watch for glitches or continuity errors or other little problems.

It wasn't the first time Cloud had played until dawn, utterly engrossed, and it wouldn't be the last either.

So he'd eventually crashed out in Genesis' apartment – in the SOLDIER's bed, no less – and woken up rumpled and sleep-deprived and wearing not all that much. It... it looked bad, anyone would admit that.

Yet Zack was waiting to talk it out with them, not getting mad or making any rash accusations until he knew the full story, even though it was obviously paining him to do so. Gods. He was a better person than Cloud deserved.

"If it makes you feel any better, I slept on the couch while he was in my bed," Genesis said, shrugging.

Zack turned to Cloud as if waiting for confirmation.

Cloud nodded, his voice quavering a little. "We were playing the game, the new version one. We were on Gen's laptop, but he got bored of playing before I did and went to go get some sleep..." He turned to address Genesis. "Did you really sleep on the couch and let me hog your bed the whole night?"

"Would you have preferred I stayed?" Genesis purred.

Actually, Cloud would have preferred it if Genesis had kicked him out to the couch instead. He felt more than a little mortified at having inadvertently forced a First Class SOLDIER elite out of his own bed. Shit. Could you get court-martialled for that?

"That does make me feel better, yeah," said Zack, a forced lightness to his tone. "But if you could stop blatantly flirting with my boyfriend that would be great as well."

Genesis scoffed. "I've hardly been flirting with him."

"I saw you feeling up his ass the other day."

"Can you blame me? It's rather lovely."

"I think Genesis flirts with anything with a pulse…" Cloud offered cautiously, hoping that a touch of humour would help relieve the tension and not make things even worse.

"Only attractive anythings. And I limit myself to people, thank you."

Zack only gave Genesis a look, as if mildly disturbed Genesis even felt the need to clarify. "Okay. Fine. Well, if you could maybe avoid flirting with Cloud specifically, that would be cool."

"Are you jealous, Fair?"

"Yes." He was honest, at least.

Genesis' lips twitched into a smirk. "Are you jealous of me flirting with your boyfriend, or jealous I'm not flirting with you as well?"

Zack paused, his brain taking a second to process that one. "What…?"

Then Genesis was at his side, a hand sliding around Zack's waist and a finger curled beneath his jaw, gently tilting Zack's head back so he could lean in and kiss him.

Zack and Cloud made almost identical noises of surprise.

Genesis let the kiss linger for a few long moment. He drew away wearing a smug, self-satisfied grin, and, for once in his life, Zack was rendered speechless.

"I'm sure we can work this out with no need for anyone to be jealous," Genesis said, his tone far too suggestive.

The two younger men shared a baffled glance.

"Is he saying he wants a threesome?"

Cloud snorted, then buried his face in his hands. He hadn't meant to make such an embarrassing noise, but the laugh had just burst out of him. He couldn't help it. Zack's expression was so utterly incredulous.

"Oh, please," Genesis said, exasperated. "Don't act all surprised and innocent. I know you've already invited Angeal join in a three-way relationship with you."

"Well, yeah, but..." Zack still sounded particularly flummoxed.

Cloud blinked. "Wait, are you  _actually_  saying you want a threesome?"

"No, that was not what I was saying. Necessarily. I will take it as an acceptable outcome, though."

Cloud laughed again, and this time Zack joined in. Genesis rolled his eyes to the high heavens. People weren't meant to  _laugh_  when he (semi-seriously) offered them the chance of a threesome.

"Should I be the one jealous now, since you've taken to smooching my boyfriend?" Cloud said, feeling secure enough now to tease in return.

Genesis raised an eyebrow.

"No," Zack said with absolute conviction. "You shouldn't be." He ignored Genesis in favour of pulling Cloud in. Zack held him gently, hands resting on Cloud's shoulders, and kissed him.

Cloud melted into it, returning the kiss with utmost sincerity. There were so many ways this morning could have completely blown up in his face, but Zack had been so damn  _nice_  about it and, fuck, Cloud loved him.

Genesis was happy to leer at the pretty picture the two made... for the first couple of minutes, anyway. Then Cloud buried his hands into Zack's hair, and Zack's arms lowered to pull Cloud in flush against him, and there was definitely some tongue getting involved in that kiss.

He was starting to feel rather left out.

Cloud started as he felt a second pair of arms wrap around him, but Zack wasn't about to let him go either. Then Genesis' mouth was on his throat, nipping at the soft, sensitive skin. Not hard enough to mark, but enough to make Cloud moan into Zack's mouth.

His breath hitched. If he was being honest, Cloud would have to admit he had a thing about multiple partners - no doubt at least partially inspired by the influence of the game. It had always been one of the (admittedly, many) things that appealed to him. Seeing the way the characters would interact as part of a larger group, how they could gang up on one someone to lavish them with attention, the different personalities and the different kinds of pleasure they could give. It looked wonderful. Intense, even overwhelming at times, maybe... but that was what made it so much fun.

And now Zack was tongue-fucking his mouth while Genesis' hands were sliding up beneath his shirt, and it was turning Cloud on so much more than it should have.

He had no idea where this was going, but he wanted it.

Did Zack, though?

Cloud finally pulled away, breathless and panting, his lips pink and kiss-swollen. Zack gave a small groan of disappointment.

"Mmn, Zack. Is this okay...?"

They had discussed the possibility of involving other people in their relationship. Angeal had been on both of their minds from the start, and they still hoped he would come around and join them. Genesis and Sephiroth had come up as well, but that had been in a more joking manner after Zack discovered Cloud was in both of their fanclubs and had been harbouring a childish crush for years. (He was  _over_  those childish crushes, thank you. He actually knew them as people now, as friends, and he liked them a lot more than just a fanboy's adoration.)

Zack had laughed and unwittingly suggested exactly what had been on Cloud's mind for weeks, ever since Sephiroth had shown him that one scene in the game. All five of them together.

Cloud didn't know if it was a joke, or if he honestly would want that. He prayed it was the latter, because, Gaia, that was what Cloud wanted so badly.

Zack glanced at Genesis with a look so similar to the ones Angeal gave. Fond, but exasperated at the same time. Then he smiled at Cloud.

"Yeah. Yeah, this is okay."

Genesis rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Well, I'm glad you two have finally come to a conclusion. You could damage a man's ego, threatening to leave him out like that."

"It'd take a hell of a lot more than that to damage your ego, Gen," Zack teased.

Genesis leaned in. For a moment Cloud thought he was going to kiss Zack again, but instead Genesis nipped at Zack's bottom lip. "Bad puppy. I see Angeal still hasn't got you trained properly yet."

Zack grinned and dragged Genesis back for a real kiss.

It was a nice sight, and Cloud had a front row seat for the show. Genesis was a damn good kisser. It was almost hypnotising, the way he worked his lips against Zack's until Zack relented. His eyes fluttered closed with a soft moan.

Even kissing Zack, Genesis still had his arm around Cloud. Cloud hardly even noticed, until a hand slid beneath the waistband of his boxers and cupped his ass. He gave a small gasp. His hips jerked, still pressed firmly against Zack's, and there was no way that Zack wouldn't be able to feel Cloud's erection.

Zack squinted one eye open, giving Cloud a sultry look. This time it was Zack's hand that snuck into his boxers, down the front. Then Zack's hand was wrapped around his cock and Cloud groaned loudly, helplessly bucking into Zack's grip.

"Nngh, Zack...!"

Genesis' smirked, his mouth moving back to trail hotly along Cloud's jaw. He glanced past Cloud to catch Zack's eye again. "Suck him."

Then they were shifting positions. Genesis sat back against the sofa, pulling Cloud down with him to sit in his lap. Cloud had ended up in Genesis' lap an awful lot before, usually with a laptop in front of them both. But this time he could feel the press of Genesis' erection, even through the SOLDIER's leather trousers, and Zack was kneeling in front of them between Cloud's spread legs.

Zack and Genesis worked together to pull Cloud's boxers off, and Genesis dragged Cloud's shirt all the way up to his shoulders, leaving his chest and stomach exposed.

Cloud was almost entirely naked, his full, flushed erection proudly on display, while he was sandwiched between two fully-clothed SOLDIERs. There was something... incredibly hot about that.

Zack licked his lips, hovering just above Cloud's cock, and that was incredibly hot as well.

Genesis tilted Cloud's head back, drawing him into a slow, thorough kiss. Zack's mouth descended on Cloud's erection, his lips tight around Cloud's shaft while he tongued the flushed head of his boyfriend's cock. Cloud moaned, the sound swallowed completely by Genesis' mouth on his own.

Zack braced his hands on Cloud's bare thighs, holding him steady while he went down on him in earnest. Cloud arched back against Genesis.

Genesis gradually moved his mouth lower, until he was nipping and sucking at Cloud's throat again. This time he was definitely going to leave hickeys. Cloud let his head fall back, offering himself to Genesis' attentions.

"Nnn, Zack, please," Cloud gasped.

"Please what, precious?" Genesis asked, grazing his lips just beneath Cloud's jawline.

Cloud didn't answer. He was trying futilely to buck his hips up, to feel more of the wet, tight warmth of Zack's mouth, but he couldn't go anywhere with two SOLDIERs holding him down. Zack was teasing him, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He bobbed his mouth around Cloud's cock in a rhythm that was so close to being exactly how Cloud liked it, but just a fraction too slow – purposefully slow. He curled his tongue along the underside of Cloud's cock. He took Cloud's balls in the palm of his hand, rolling them with just the right amount of stimulation to make Cloud squirm in Genesis' arms.

It was so very easy for him to turn Cloud into a trembling, panting wreck. Genesis was impressed.

"M-more. I'm gonna..."

Genesis bit down on Cloud's shoulder, making Cloud cry out in pleasure. Zack grazed his teeth along Cloud's cock, because he knew Cloud got off on the thrill of it, and Cloud's cries turned wordless and desperate.

He came with a drawn-out groan, tensing in Genesis' embrace. Genesis ran his hands down Cloud's sides, almost soothingly, adoring the way Cloud looked as he came undone. His head was thrown back, and pretty pink flush over his face and chest, lips parted and eyes unfocused. He really was rather gorgeous in the throes of passion.

Genesis also learned another vital piece of intelligence; Zack swallowed.

Zack let Cloud's softened cock slip out from between his lips, pressing little butterfly kisses against Cloud's inner thighs instead.

"Ohh," Cloud sighed happily. He blinked for a moment, regaining his senses, then he turned himself over so he was on his hands and knees above Genesis. He might have come, but there were two other SOLDIERs sporting furious hard-ons who weren't so lucky. Cloud's fingers ghosted down to the fly of Genesis' trousers. "Do you want me to...?"

"I would love you to," Genesis purred. "But, unfortunately, I was supposed to be in a meeting at nine o'clock."

It was now significantly after nine.

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed." Genesis levered Cloud off him, shifting Cloud into Zack's waiting arms.

He honestly didn't care much for the meeting – it was with the department heads, and Lazard was already there to do any real decision making. The presence of a SOLDIER was a mere formality. However, he thought it would be more prudent to let the two younger men have time to talk. Had it been Cloud alone, Genesis would have had no qualms about ravaging him there and then. But Zack was an uncertainty – he and Cloud had discussed Angeal, evidentially, but Genesis hadn't been part of the deal.

So Genesis would let them have their couple time, let them get on the same page about what they wanted. And then they all could finish what they started. Possibly with Angeal along as well. And Sephiroth. Yes, that would do very nicely.

He gave Cloud a smirk, kissing him thoroughly. Then he did the same for Zack.

"Later," Genesis promised. He was addressing Cloud, but his eyes were on Zack. "I'm trusting you two not to do anything too incriminating if I leave you alone in my apartment... but, just for reference, there's lube in the top drawer beside the bed, and some rather lovely leather cuffs in the bottom of the wardrobe. Cloud would look good in them."

Cloud flushed, but his interest had clearly been piqued.

Zack looked like he was going to protest, just for a moment, but then Cloud turned to give him such a sweet, hopeful look, and Cloud's naked ass rubbed against the bulge in the front of Zack's trousers, and Zack decided he wouldn't complain after all.

"Later," Genesis said again, leaving them to it.

He shut the door behind him, then leant back against it. It was all well and good taking the noble route, but he was still hard enough that it ached. He wasn't going to a stupid fucking meeting like this. He was hardly about to jack off in the hallway either.

Perhaps he would go and pay a visit to Sephiroth instead.

 


	13. Chapter 13

It was strange to think that Sephiroth's apartment had become something like a sanctuary for Cloud.

After Cloud's previous visit, Sephiroth had left open a vague, uncertain invitation, like he couldn't quite understand why anyone would want to be at his place when the others' apartments were so much more inviting. But Cloud was welcome to visit. If he ever wanted to.

Cloud wanted to.

They sat in silence, each focused on their own projects. But it was a comfortable silence. It was exactly what Cloud needed; the silence and the space to think, the reassuring presence of a friend (it made Cloud's heart flutter a little each time to know that Sephiroth now considered them  _friends_ ), but no pressure to talk about what was on his mind.

He would only be going in circles if he did try to talk about exactly what was bothering him. After all, the solution to his relationship troubles was obvious. He'd made his choice, damnit. It was just a matter of gathering the courage to put it into action. And stopping his over-active imagination from coming up with all the ways it could go horribly wrong.

For the first time in his life, Cloud felt like he was accepted, like he was a welcome part in the SOLDIERs' group of friends. He had a boyfriend. They actually cared about him. Maybe even loved him (Zack definitely did).

To lose all of that would be more painful than he could bear.

Cloud sighed in annoyance. He wasn't going to lose  _anything_ , he told himself. So what if he suggested they all get together in a five way relationship? There was a very good chance everyone was on the same page anyway. Sephiroth had been the one to suggest it first; Genesis was clearly interested in getting involved; Zack had talked it through with Cloud and agreed he was open to involving more people in their relationship; Angeal had originally turned them down, but Genesis said that was only out of respect for the other Firsts because they hadn't discussed it, so there was still a chance there.

It was going to happen. He just needed to  _make_  it happen. And so what if it didn't go to plan? It didn't mean they would stop being friends.

With that firm reasoning in his mind, Cloud had visited Sephiroth in his apartment... and promptly proceeded to ignore the everloving fuck out of the whole mess.

He had brought his laptop along with him, and was trying to relax in his favourite way; playing the game. He played as one of the random, pre-set characters, starting from the lowest rank. He focused on the mission mini-games, levelling up. He netted himself several promotions, until his character was a Second Class. But even then, he avoided the First Classes.

He romanced a fellow Second Class, Kunsel, but Cloud's heart wasn't in it, even when he got to try out one of the new suspension rigs that had been added to the game. It was so very pretty, with all those lovely leather straps and chains, but Cloud couldn't focus.

He saw Sephiroth and Angeal and Genesis around on the SOLDIER floor, and his heart ached a little every time.

It was fucking ridiculous.

Cloud groaned and shut his laptop, rubbing his eyes.

Sephiroth glanced up from his book. "Are you well?" he asked, eyebrows creased ever so slightly in concern.

"I'm sorry," Cloud said. He hadn't meant to disturb Sephiroth's reading. "I'm fine. It's just a headache."

"Can I get you a glass of water? I'm afraid I do not have any aspirin – it doesn't do any good for SOLDIERs, so I don't tend to keep it on hand – but I can find you a potion if that would help."

Cloud shook his head, blushing a little. Sephiroth was always so damn  _sweet_  to him. "It's, uh. More of a metaphorical headache than a literal one," Cloud admitted.

"Ah." Sephiroth gave him a small smile. "Your relationship worries?"

"Um. Yes. You know about that?"

"Genesis is a horrid gossip, though only amongst the people he trusts. I hear you look rather lovely getting blown."

Cloud was definitely blushing now. "Ohh, Gaia, he talked about that?"

"There is nothing to be ashamed of."

Cloud laughed. "I suppose not."

And it didn't bother Cloud, really. But there was something else that did. Even in the midst of conversation, Sephiroth seemed quiet; more quiet than normal, at any rate. Almost withdrawn, in that way he did when he was refusing to admit something was troubling him. The smile as he reassured Cloud seemed strained. Lonely.

Lonely... no wonder. If he had been hearing about Cloud and Zack inviting Angeal to join them, and then Genesis even starting to get physically involved... Cloud had kissed him, once, but ever since then Sephiroth had been the one on the outskirts.

"Sephiroth..." Cloud began.

"They will be good for you. Angeal and Genesis, I mean."

"But what about you?" Something in Cloud's tone sounded too fragile. Dangerous.

"Hm?"

"What about you and Genesis and Angeal? You were together first."

"I would do nothing to restrain their freedom. The choice is theirs to make, and if they choose you, I can only say that it is an understandable decision. You are certainly a lovely young man, Cloud."

Cloud puffed up, almost angry on Sephiroth's behalf. He swung around on the sofa to place them face to face, then took it a step further and threw a leg over Sephiroth's thighs, straddling him. Cloud took two fistfuls of the loose shirt Sephiroth was wearing.

"You'd really just let me waltz in and steal your boyfriends like that? Are you kidding me?"

Sephiroth blinked, frowning in his confusion. He didn't understand why Cloud was getting upset – had he not given him the permission he was after?

"What about  _you?_ "

"I... would miss them, I admit," Sephiroth said softly. "But I cannot always provide emotional stability in a relationship. My grasp on social skills can be tenuous. If it is in their benefit to move on-"

Cloud shoved Sephiroth back against the sofa. He was scowling, but his eyebrows turned up like he was closer to sadness than true anger. "Don't you think you deserve to be happy too?"

Sephiroth cupped Cloud' face with one hand, thumb brushing across Cloud's cheekbone. Cloud's eyes shone with the threat of tears.

"I am a SOLDIER, Cloud. I was created as a weapon... whatever happiness I glean is a gift, not my right."

"Shut  _up._  That's not true at all. That's just  _stupid_. Of course you have a right to be happy!"

"...why are you upset?"

"Because  _I_  want you to be happy. Shiva, Seph. I... I never wanted to take Genesis and Angeal away from you. I would rather not have them at all. I wanted all of us together, just like you said. I didn't ever mean for you to feel like... ugh, I've been going about this so shit."

Sephiroth finally relaxed enough to give a small chuckle under his breath. Cloud's grip on his shirt eased, and Sephiroth pulled Cloud against his chest. Cloud gave a shaky sigh and sank into the contact.

"All of us, together?" Sephiroth confirmed.

"Yeah."

"And Zack?"

"We've talked about it. He was okay with Angeal from the very start anyway, and he doesn't have a problem with you or Genesis either. He thinks it could work."

Hm. Zack was certainly a lot better at reading people and relationships than Sephiroth would ever be. If he thought it could work, Sephiroth trusted that judgement.

"Sephiroth." Cloud lifted his head. The wetness had vanished from his eyes, replaced now with warm stubbornness as he met Sephiroth's gaze. "I want you with us," Cloud said. " _We_  want you with us."

Cloud leaned in, resting his forehead against Sephiroth's. Sephiroth's arms wrapped around behind Cloud, holding him in a loose embrace.

He didn't know what to say, how to describe the ache in his chest. "Thank you," Sephiroth finally said, quietly but sincerely.

Cloud laughed lightly, somewhere between relief and euphoria, and then their lips were pressed together. Neither of them were quite sure who had initiated the kiss, but, really, what did it matter.

Sephiroth had one arm slung low around Cloud's waist and the other between his shoulder blades, holding him close. Cloud's hands tangled into Sephiroth's hair.

The kiss was heated and passionate. Not quite desperate, but definitely full of a shared longing that they'd both repressed for too long. Their hands clung tightly to each other.

Cloud sighed and parted his lips to allow Sephiroth's tongue in.

He barely registered the change in their position; Sephiroth rolled them both over, so that Cloud was laid out with his back on the sofa, and Sephiroth pressing down on top of him. Cloud arched up, loving the feel of the length of Sephiroth's body pressed firmly against his own.

Sephiroth's tongue was stroking against the inside of Cloud's mouth, sending shivers through him. Cloud returned the favour. His hands ran through Sephiroth's hair, and Cloud moaned softly as they explored each other properly for the first time.

"Sephiroth," he murmured, breathless between kisses.

Sephiroth kissed his throat, the corner of his mouth, then back to Cloud's lips.

"We should let the others know... make it official," Cloud said.

"Mm," Sephiroth agreed. He kissed Cloud again briefly, then another, deeper. The hand originally around Cloud's waist had migrated lower, cupping Cloud's ass now, and Cloud sighed at the contact. "Shall I call them, see where they are? We can go and tell them in person."

Cloud hummed his approval. He rocked his hips up, feeling Sephiroth's arousal through the material of their trousers.

"In a bit," he said, the hint of an impish grin playing at his lips. "I wanna make out some more first..."

Sephiroth was happy to oblige.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the huge delay on this chapter! I'm halfway through my first year at university, and while it is very exciting and all, I sadly don't have much spare time to write. orz I'm going to try and wrap up this fic within the next couple of weeks before going back, so I don't leave you all hanging for another whole semester again. This chapter is the end of the story arc anyway, though I will be writing an epilogue for it. And then I can mark the fic as complete! :o
> 
> (I may or may not write a new chapter 2 as well, while I'm finishing things off here. I want to get rid of the current one; it's half in frickin' Tumblr ask format still, and the Zack selfcest is just kinda meh. I could just delete the chapter and nothing would be lost, buuuut I feel like it would be good to have something at that point to show their friendship and be laying the foundations for the later Zack/Cloud. So. Might write something new to go in there instead. We'll see.)

Cloud's hands were shaking, and he couldn't tell if it was with nerves or excitement.

It was... it was like a rollercoaster, he decided. The last twenty four hours kept lifting him higher and higher. And now he'd come to the precipice. Either everything would go well and it would be the most exhilarating ride of his life... or the whole thing would crash and burn.

First it had been Sephiroth. Sephiroth wanted to be in a relationship with _him_. With him and Angeal and Genesis and Zack, just like Cloud had barely dared to dream of.

And they had ended up making out. Rather a lot. Dicks had been touched, and it was _amazing_.

Then in the morning they'd gone together to find Zack, and there was no persuasion need there to get him on board with the idea.

("You... you were serious about the five-way relationship thing?" Zack had asked.

"Yeah. I'm sorry- if that's weird, I mean. I know you said that you were okay with it but I figured you were just playing along and joking about it."

Zack snorted, then started to laugh. "Wait, what? I was only joking about it cause I thought _you_ were joking about it, and I didn't want to make things awkward by saying I would seriously consider it!"

"So... we were both being serious but pretending we weren't?"

"Pfft. Apparently."

"And that means you're okay with this?"

Zack pulled Cloud against him in a tight embrace, then kissed him thoroughly in celebration. His eyes glinted with mischief, and then Zack did exactly the same thing to Sephiroth, who was surprisingly indulgent of such behaviour. They both looked smug and slightly out of breath by the time Zack was done.

"I am _so_ okay with this," Zack grinned.)

Genesis had needed even less persuasion, if that were possible. His reaction had been something along the lines of "well, about time!"

Sephiroth and Zack had stayed behind with Genesis, claiming that Cloud should be the one to talk to Angeal. He was the one who had put the whole thing into motion, after all.

It was weird to think about. Cloud hadn't really thought he'd done anything at all, but looking back at it... maybe they were right. He'd been the catalyst.

He just hoped he wouldn't be the one to screw it up for all of them as well.

The elevator dinged as it reached the 49th floor. The SOLDIER floor. Angeal should be around here somewhere.

Cloud took a deep breath and stepped out. Genesis had reported Angeal's last known location to be in his office. He hoped that was still the case; he wanted somewhere private for them to talk.

Angeal's office was smaller than Sephiroth's, but far cosier. He preferred it that way. The vast majority of the time it was simply a quiet retreat for him to catch up on paperwork, rather than a location other SOLDIERs and members of the company would report to, so it was unnecessary to make the place look intimidating. Instead, Angeal had a small cactus on his desk wearing a brightly-coloured sombrero.

Despite his nerves, Cloud grinned. Typical Zack gift... and typical Angeal to actually like it enough to give it a spot of honour.

Gaia, Cloud adored them both.

"Cloud," Angeal greeted, his voice a low, fond rumble.

"Um. Hey." Nice eloquent start, Strife. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt if you're busy..."

Angeal pushed the papers on his desk aside, giving Cloud a careful look over. He knew Cloud well enough that his nervousness was obvious; a far cry from how relaxed and comfortable he usually was in Angeal's presence. "I'm never too busy for you. Are you alright?"

"Can we talk?"

"Is this a good talk or a bad talk?" Angeal said, teasing just a little to try and lighten Cloud's mood. He stood and guided them both to the battered, over-stuffed sofa that lived in an unobtrusive corner at the back of the room. His hand on the small of Cloud's back lingered just a little too long to be entirely platonic.

Cloud sat. He fidgeted for a long moment of silence, trying to find the words to get straight to the point. The last thing he wanted was to drag this out by playing coy. Maybe they should have sent Zack to talk instead, he was good at blurting out what he was thinking. Not always subtle, but subtlety was precisely what _wasn't_ needed in this situation.

Angeal waited for him patiently, his hand lingering over Cloud's reassuringly.

"About when Zack and I asked you to join us... would you reconsider?" Cloud finally said.

"Cloud-"

"I understand why you couldn't before, and I would never want to make you choose between Seph and Gen or us! It's just... it's a little different now. I don't know if Genesis said, but. We're gonna try, with all of us. Sephiroth and Genesis and Zack and me... and you. If you want. We want you."

Angeal was quiet for even longer than Cloud had been. His hand didn't move from Cloud's, though.

"What are you asking for, Cloud?" he asked quietly.

"Huh? Well... a relationship. A romantic one. For all of us to be together, as... boyfriends, I guess. I don't really know how dating would work with five people, but I want to find out."

Angeal raised an eyebrow. "Sex?"

Cloud could feel himself blushing. Of course, Angeal knew all about him playing that game; he must have a good idea of the sorts of things Cloud was thinking of.

"Well... _yeah_ , I mean, eventually, whenever it's comfortable, but that's not the main thing. I just want to be with you, more than anything. All of you."

Angeal gave Cloud a smile, but it was tight and forced. Maybe even a little sad. "And what about the others? Cloud, it's not that simple. When you get into a relationship like this, you have to make sure you're all on the same page. You might come in wanting a romantic relationship, but someone else might come in only expecting to be friends with benefits."

His tone had turned hard by the end of his speech.

"I-it's not gonna be like that—"

"But do you _know_ that?"

Cloud had no answer. His hopes were starting to feel like they were crumbling, and it was a struggle to hold it together. Angeal hadn't said _no_ , yet, not really; and even if he did, Cloud still had an amazing boyfriend in Zack, and nothing was going to change that. He didn't know what would happen with Sephiroth and Genesis, but he wasn't going to be the one to take them from Angeal. Things would probably just go back to the way they were before. And that was fine. It should have been fine. It didn't feel like it, though.

"I'm sorry," Angeal said. Cloud wasn't doing a terribly good job at hiding his distress, and Angeal hadn't meant to do that to him. He sighed softly. "I just don't want you to get hurt. I know from experience how disheartening it can be to find your expectations to be different like that."

Cloud glanced up at Angeal, the pieces clicking together in his mind. "...Sephiroth and Genesis. They said you guys were just in a casual, open relationship... but you wanted more than that?"

"Yes."

Cloud looked away for a moment, subdued. But when he turned to Angeal again his expression was one of fierce determination. "So have more. Be with them now."

"But Genesis isn't—"

"Genesis is crazy about you. If you want to be exclusive with him... just ask. He'd do that for you in a heartbeat, you know."

"And what about you?"

Cloud gave a wry smile. He sounded cheesy as hell and he knew it, but he didn't know any other way to say it. "I just want everyone to be _happy_."

Angeal shook his head. He wrapped his arms around Cloud, pulling him into his lap, and Cloud was more than pleased to allow the repositioning. Angeal held both hands loosely on Cloud's hips, leaning in to press their foreheads together.

"A relationship like this is going to take a lot of work, you know."

"I know."

"We're going to have to communicate. All of us, all the time."

"We can do it."

"And I don't know what you're planning, but orgies are a lot more awkward and difficult than a certain sex game would make them seem."

Cloud laughed at that. "I wasn't planning anything!"

Angeal moved lower to nuzzle at Cloud's throat. "That's a shame. I was."

Cloud's breath caught at the sudden wave of lust that shivered through him. " _Shiiiit_ , Angeal, you can't just say stuff like that." Not if he expected Cloud to still hold a serious conversation, at any rate.

Angeal chuckled, low and deep. "I can say it to my boyfriend, can't I?"

Wait. Boyfriend?

"You... you're going to join us, then?"

"Yes."

It took a second for it to sink in. Then Cloud took Angeal's face in both his hands and kissed him hard, overflowing with joy.

Angeal wrapped an arm around Cloud's waist, hand at the small of his back, holding him close. His other hand buried into Cloud's hair, cradling the back of his head as he deepened the kiss. Gaia. Cloud's lips were so soft and warm and deliciously pliant, and his kisses the sweetest Angeal had ever tasted. He could see why Zack was so addicted.

Cloud was breathless and laughing by the time they broke apart, smiling widely. Gorgeous.

Angeal couldn't help but smile in return. Whatever other concerns he may have had, he knew that Cloud was utterly sincere in his affections. It was impossible not to end up returning them.

Angeal gave Cloud another brief kiss, then shifted Cloud out of his lap so they could both stand. He offered Cloud his hand, and immediately the younger man's fingers twined with his. "Alright. Forget the paperwork. Are the others around? I want to talk to them myself."

Cloud nodded. "They were at Gen's when I left."

"Good. Let's go and see them. And then... hm." Angeal trailed off thoughtfully.

"Then what?" Cloud prompted.

Even as they left Angeal's office, stepping out into the open where any passing SOLDIER could see them, Angeal didn't let go of Cloud's hand. He rubbed his thumb over Cloud's knuckles, smiling and raising an eyebrow at him that way that was teasing and just a little suggestive at the same time.

"Then we'll have to see about finding a bed big enough for all five of us."


	15. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are. The epilogue of sex game verse. I can't believe it's finally here and I actually kind of finished a multichapter thing, haha. It's been a fun ride, but I feel like this is a good place to wrap things up and end the fic. Don't worry, though, there will still be plenty more kinky SOLDIER boyfriends in other stuff. ;3
> 
> Thank you guys for reading!
> 
> Warnings: NSFW. We have actual non-game sexings! BDSM themes, cause, y'know, the whole set-up has been that it's a kinky sex game and Cloud is a kinky little shit. There's a vibrator and some bondage and stuff. Couldn't leave sex game verse without some sex at last. xp

Cloud gave a blissful sigh as he sank back into the soft leather of Genesis' sofa. He had one more mission under his belt, and the rest of the afternoon off with it completed. He'd taken his boots off at the door and ditched the cumbersome belt and pauldrons before sitting down, but Cloud was otherwise entirely content to remain in his SOLDIER uniform.

_His_ SOLDIER uniform.

It had been a little over two months now, but Cloud would still occasionally be struck with the elation of having managed to achieve his dream. And not even just SOLDIER; he also had the four most amazing boyfriends on the planet.

He might have wished for something like that in his deepest and most unrealistic fantasies, years ago when he was leaving Nibelheim, but the idea of it actually happening had seemed laughable at the time. Cloud had never been more happy to be wrong in his life.

None of the others were around just yet. Zack and Sephiroth were out on missions of their own. Genesis had been roped into teaching advanced materia tactics to some of the Second Classes, and Angeal was away mediating some interdepartmental snafu. (He was the only one capable of doing that particular job; sending Genesis tended to result in even more damages and red tape, and Sephiroth would lose patience with the amount of bullshit and walk out.)

All of them should be home by the evening, but until then, Cloud had the place to himself.

It was kind of nice to have some time just to relax. He could read one of Gen's books, or play that new video game Zack had got and was so excited about, or... Cloud's eyes fell on the laptop he'd left on the coffee table earlier that morning, and he grinned to himself. He knew exactly what he wanted to do.

With a snack in one hand and his laptop in the other, Cloud settled in to play.

It had been a while since he'd had the time for his once-favourite game. Getting into SOLDIER and all the training and missions that came with it ate up a lot of time, and most of what was left over Cloud spent with his boyfriends in person. He didn't need the game anymore, not when he had the real thing.

But it was still great for some wonderfully nostalgic fun.

Cloud went to his usual old save file. He'd never been able to replicate every single minute detail required to make the actual fivesome occur, but his player character had high enough stats with all the others than he could easily instigate any sex scene or threesome. Sometimes he would just let a scene play out randomly and see what happened. More often than not, it would lead to some very interesting inspiration.

Cloud could, and easily did, lose several pleasant hours entranced by the level of love and attention put into the game.

Genesis was the first to arrive home, leaning down to press a kiss to Cloud's forehead as he walked past. The laptop screen happened to be displaying a particularly lovely image at the time; Cloud sandwiched between Sephiroth and Angeal, his mouth on Angeal's cock while Sephiroth took him from behind.

"Good evening, precious," Genesis said, a purr evident in his greeting.

Cloud titled his head back to give Genesis a kiss on the lips as well. "Hey."

"Enjoying yourself?" he smirked, nodding towards the screen.

"Yeah. It's not as good as the real thing though."

Genesis gave an amused huff in response to the teasing. "I should hope not." He gave Cloud's lips another quick peck. "Let me just get out of my work things. I believe I may join you."

When Genesis returned, it was without his signature red leather coat. Instead he was dressed relatively casually, tight jeans and a loose button-up shirt. He budged Cloud up on the sofa, sitting close enough next to him that their thighs were touching, looping an arm around Cloud's waist as he leaned in to view the screen.

In all honesty, the game didn't get Cloud going the same way it used to. It was still something he found immensely enjoyable, obviously. But he'd spent too long working on it with the beta testing, not to mention having experienced being with the First Class boyfriends in reality now, and in comparison the game was nowhere near as much of a turn on.

Well, usually. Things were a little different when one those First Class boyfriends was pressed up against his side, watching him play and murmuring dirty little comments in his ear.

"Mm, you _do_ look good with a dick in your mouth, don't you, precious?"

Cloud could feel Genesis' lips as they grazed against the edge of his ear, along his jawline, and the sensation made him shiver. He shifted, trying to ease some of the tightness growing in his trousers each time Genesis spoke.

"And so gorgeous when you make those sounds..."

Cloud let out a quiet moan, very similar to the one Genesis was talking about, as Genesis undid Cloud's trousers and slid his hand beneath the back of the waistband.

Cloud did his best to focus on playing the game – he was supposed to selecting if he wanted restraints or not there, or, oh, if Sephiroth was going to spank him – but that was only making him even more hard and flustered.

His computerised characterisation of himself was sucking on Angeal's cock, saliva-slick lips stretched obscenely wide around it, taking as much as he could while his eyes rolled back in pleasure. And in real life, Genesis had a hand down the back of his pants, teasing a finger suggestively at Cloud's entrance.

Genesis pulled away for a moment, and when his fingers returned they were slick with lube. He nudged Cloud forward so his weight was on his thighs and his ass raised, allowing Genesis the access he wanted.

"I brought a few things with me from the bedroom," he explained conversationally, as if he wasn't slowly curling a finger into Cloud at that exact moment. "I thought they might come in handy."

"Genesis..." Cloud groaned.

"Keep playing. Look, they're waiting for you to make your choice before continuing the scene."

A little shakily, Cloud did as directed. He picked an option without really reading what they were, more than a little distracted by the two fingers Genesis was now working inside him.

The action on screen quietened for a moment while the two computerised SOLDIERs brought some more toys into play. Cloud's head was tilted back, faced flushed and hair a sex-mussed mess, and a ring gag fitted into his mouth. Angeal tightened the leather restraint round the back of Cloud's head, then guided him down to his cock again. The ring was big enough that it could be fucked through and, _shit_ -

Cloud's hips jerked, making the laptop wobble precariously on his knees. There was something bigger than Genesis' fingers nudging at his entrance now. One of their toys; smooth and thick and rounded. Cloud groaned as it was gradually pushed inside him.

Genesis gave Cloud a smirk and a kiss, pressing the button that would make the toy start vibrating.

"Nnn, Gen...!"

"Keep playing," Genesis repeated, his voice a low, suggestive purr.

Cloud couldn't. Angeal was face-fucking his counterpart on screen while Genesis toyed with the vibrator in Cloud's ass, and Cloud just couldn't. He needed more.

He paused the game and shoved the laptop away onto the coffee table. Genesis looked disappointed, but only for a short moment before Cloud sank to his knees in front of him.

"Wanna play with you instead," Cloud said, and Genesis couldn't help but laugh at the cute pun.

His laughter faded into a hiss of pleasure as Cloud undid Genesis' jeans and drew his cock out. He wasn't fully erect yet, but hard enough for it to be evident he'd been rather into their little game as well. And hard enough that it felt wonderful to have Cloud's mouth nuzzling against the heated flesh.

Cloud ignored his own arousal for the time being, taking his time as he worked along Genesis' length with teasing kisses and kitten licks.

Genesis purred and threaded his fingers into Cloud's hair, pushing him down in encouragement.

Both were distracted enough that they nearly missed the low, amused chuckle from the doorway. "Already?" Sephiroth asked. "You can't have been home more than five minutes."

"More like... mm, half an hour maybe? Good to see you too, by the way."

"Hmph." The warmth in Sephiroth's eyes belied his indifference, though. He leaned down to give Genesis a thorough kiss as he strode past the sofa. Cloud's mouth was otherwise occupied, but Sephiroth pet his hair fondly in lieu.

Cloud met Sephiroth's eyes, humming a pleased greeting and smiling as best he could with his tongue curled around Genesis' cock.

Sephiroth could feel himself starting to stir in interest; how could anyone not with Cloud looking at them like that? He cleared his throat.

"I saw Zack's transport arrive as I finished debriefing; he should not be far behind me. As for Angeal... hm." Sephiroth flicked his PHS open, smirking to himself just a little as he found the relevant application. He snapped a photo and hit send. "I shall provide him some additional incentive to wrap up the meeting early."

Genesis laughed in delight. "I never thought you could be so delightfully _cruel_."

"It is hardly my idea. In fact, certain people seem to find it vastly amusing to send similarly provocative pictures to _me_ when I am in meetings." He gave both Genesis and Cloud a pointed look with this remark.

Cloud pulled himself away from Genesis long enough to grin up at Sephiroth. "Worth it," he said.

It was absolutely worth it. Sephiroth would usually come home wound up and inclined to deal out some hard punishment to the transgressor in question. He could make Cloud scream until his voice was raw - not to mention his ass - and Cloud loved it.

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. "I see," was all he said. He glanced at the laptop screen, still idling on the coffee table. It was paused on a rather explicit image of Cloud's in-game character being fucked from both ends. Not hard to figure out where Cloud had got the inspiration to blow Genesis from... but if he did fancy replicating the (rather lovely) little scene from the game, they were going to need another person.

He trailed his fingers along Cloud's spine as he left for the bedroom.

"He'll be back," Genesis reassured a disappointed-looking Cloud. "In the meantime..."

Cloud got the hint and resumed his attentions to Genesis' cock.

He pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to the flushed tip, gradually drawing Genesis into his mouth. He kept it gentle and teasing for now – he wanted to draw it out, wait for the others to arrive. But it was still enough to have Genesis making those soft, pleased noises above him. He was definitely all the way hard now.

The first Cloud knew of Sephiroth's return was the tight grip of his hands around Cloud's wrists. He made a questioning hum around Genesis' erection, trying to turn his head to see, but Genesis' hand tangled into his hair held him in place.

"Shh, Cloud," Sephiroth commanded, voice low. "I'm going to bind your arms behind your back. Is that alright?"

"Mmn nng." Cloud's voice was muffled, but the sentiment was clear. Fuck yes.

He couldn't see what Sephiroth was doing exactly, but the sensation was familiar enough for Cloud to recognise. The cuffs were thick, soft leather; probably the baby blue ones that were Cloud's favourite. He adored the feeling Sephiroth's hands wrapped around his wrists, tightening the cuffs into place. He clipped them together at the small of Cloud's back.

Cloud leaned forward, resting his head against Genesis' thigh for extra balance now he was without the use of his hands. He needed it, because now Sephiroth was toying with his ass, and it was getting hard to focus on something so mundane as staying upright.

"Hm? What do we have here?" Sephiroth had found the vibrator, still buried in Cloud's ass even though it was currently inert. "How naughty..."

Genesis gave Sephiroth a wicked look, then passed over the remote.

Sephiroth made immediate use of it, and Cloud jerked in his bonds as the toy suddenly burst into life. "Hnn!" The vibrations were on a much higher setting now than when Genesis had been playing with him, and Cloud quickly found himself panting from the stimulation.

Sephiroth left the vibrator doing his work while he stripped Cloud the rest of the way out of his trousers, freeing his aching erection. He pushed Cloud's SOLDIER top up as well, as far as it would go, leaving Cloud's chest and stomach exposed.

He ran his fingers down Cloud's now-naked sides, over his taut abdominals, tracing the lines of Cloud's hipbones and the curve of his thighs. But not touching where Cloud needed it most.

"Nng, Sephiroth, please..."

"I don't think you deserve to be touched; not if you're going to be this easily distracted. Weren't you supposed to be blowing Genesis?"

Cloud swallowed. Right. Genesis' cock was right there by his face, hot and needy and waiting. Genesis tapped Cloud's cheek with it, leaving a small smear of precome at the corner of his mouth.

Cloud lifted his head, having to use his tongue now to get Genesis into position. He sank his mouth down around Genesis' length, as far as he could go before tears started to prick the corner of his eyes.

"Ohh, yeeeesssss," Genesis hissed, fist tightening in Cloud's hair.

Sephiroth pressed a kiss to Cloud's shoulder blade in demonstration of his approval. "That's better."

As a reward, Sephiroth took hold of the vibrator. It wasn't one of their larger toys; this one was more egg-shaped, on the shorter side but deliciously thick. Cloud moaned as Sephiroth slowly, tortuously drew it out of him.

They settled into a steady rhythm. Cloud's mouth bobbing up and down Genesis' length, swallowing around him when he could and tormenting with his tongue when he couldn't, while Sephiroth used the vibrator to fuck Cloud's ass. The toy was just the right shape to twist inside of Cloud, rubbing at every sensitive spot inside him and vibrating all the while. His face was flushed a bright pink, reddened lips parted as he gasped for breath between mouthfuls of Genesis' cock. His hips jerked back almost involuntarily.

Then Sephiroth _stopped_ , and Cloud whined in displeasure.

The reason for this became obvious as Zack Fair let out a whistle. "Whoa. Now _that_ is a nice sight to come back to."

Genesis huffed a short, breathless laugh. "Were you planning to join in, or are you just going to stand there and stare all evening?"

"Ha, well. Since you invited me so nicely."

The sofa dipped with Zack's weight as he sat beside Genesis, only to be immediately drawn into a passionate kiss. Zack groaned at how damn hot and desperate Genesis' kiss was already; if Cloud's aim had been to get him worked up, he'd definitely succeeded. Genesis reached a hand down to palm over the growing bulge in Zack's trousers.

"Did we get you excited, puppy?"

Cloud released Genesis' cock with a wet pop, nuzzling against Zack's knee instead. "I can help with that," he offered.

"Aren't you blowing Gen?"

"Ehh. I've been blowing him for a while now, he's had his turn."

"Charming!" Genesis protested.

Cloud's grin cracked into laughter, only to be cut off into a shuddering yelp as Sephiroth shoved the vibrator harshly against Cloud's prostate.

"Is that any way to talk to your lovers, Cloud?" Sephiroth purred, his voice low and dangerous. He didn't relent, thrusting the toy in and out of Cloud, shoving it hard against his prostate every time until Cloud was a trembling mess.

"Aaahh... nn, S-seph!"

"Zack, would you be so kind to go and fetch a cock ring from the bedroom? And a spreader bar and a flogger."

Cloud shivered, half with the feel of those damn vibrations and half at the prospects _that_ presented.

"Hnn." In all honestly, Zack didn't particularly want to move from his current position. Genesis' hand was inside his trousers now, massaging his quickly burgeoning erection. "Can't Angeal get them?"

"What am I getting now?"

The vibrations faded to nothing. Cloud gave a shuddering sigh, but soon recovered enough to turn his head and beam as the last of his lovers entered the living room. "Hi," he said, perhaps redundantly.

"Hello," Angeal greeted in return.

"Cock ring, spreader bar, and flogger, please," Zack reeled off, grinning.

Angeal shook his head, though it was clear from the tightness of his lips that he was doing his best not to smile. "And when were any of you planning to eat, if we start doing this now?"

"You could always eat me out," Cloud suggested, and Genesis snorted in delight.

"You little pervert."

Even Angeal couldn't hide his amusement, repressed laughter obvious in his voice. "As lovely as your ass is, I don't think it counts as a full and satisfying meal."

"Okay, okay, I know. What if we eat Cloud out, and then go and eat out?"

Cloud gave a small yelp as he felt Sephiroth's teeth grazing over the curve of his ass. "I like the sound of that idea," Sephiroth said, smirking.

"Puppy..." Angeal began.

Zack stuck his tongue out. "I'll even promise to get something with vegetables wherever we go to eat."

Angeal accepted his defeat with grace. Not even because the others seemed to have agreed on their plan already, but more because he was tempted far more than he cared to admit by the four gorgeous SOLDIERs in various compromising positions in front of him. He'd been thinking about it for the last half hour of his meeting, ever since Sephiroth had sent him that damn picture. Trying to be rational was a token gesture at best.

"How about we move this to the bedroom, then?" he said, voice a little rougher than he had intended. But the sofa was quickly running out of room for that many fully grown men, after all.

As much as they were loathe to disengage from each other, Angeal made a very good point.

"Well," Genesis agreed, "that _is_ where all the toys are."

Sephiroth removed the toy from Cloud's ass, murmuring a promise to fill him up with cock instead as soon as they got to the bedroom. Cloud leaned up to give Genesis a brief, heated kiss by way of apology for getting distracted from pleasuring him. Angeal joined them, and Cloud kissed him too.

The journey to the bedroom was a mess of limbs and cast-off clothing. Cloud bounced, laughing, as he was tossed onto the bed, Zack immediately crawling over the covers to sprawl next to him. Angeal joined him as well, running his hands over Cloud in that way he knew made Cloud shiver with lust.

Genesis approached the bed with a smirk, tapping a flogger against his hand. "Don't get too familiar with him, Ange. He still needs his punishment for leaving me hanging in the middle of a blowjob yet." Clearly one kiss was not an acceptable amount of apology... but they all knew Cloud would get off on his 'punishment' anyway.

There was still the spreader bar and cock ring to go on as well. "On your knees," Sephiroth commanded, and fuck, his voice sounded like pure sex when he talked that way.

Angeal wrapped an arm around Zack from behind, nuzzling against the back of his neck, teeth catching on Zack's earring and tugging. Zack let out a heavy breath, pressing back against Angeal's firm and now very naked body. He could totally watch Cloud and get it on with Angeal at the same time, fuck yes.

"Just a moment," Genesis interrupted, tone sugar-sweet. "I do believe our little kitten here might like it if Seph pounds his ass from behind while you fuck his face, Angeal. And this time, he's actually going to finish the job."

Zack blinked for a moment. "Oh. Ohhh, that was what was on the laptop screen!"

"Why would that be on laptop?"

"Cloud was playing the sex game again."

Of all the things in this situation that could possibly cause Cloud to blush, it seemed ridiculous that being called out on playing the game would be the thing to do it. But it was a good kind of blush.

"It's still fun," he mumbled with a shrug, slightly awkward with his hands still cuffed behind his back. "Way better in reality though."

Zack grinned, resting his forehead against Cloud's for a moment before giving in to the urge to kiss him until they were both breathing hard again. "Yeah," he agreed. "It really is."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Let's Play](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6691654) by [Kess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kess/pseuds/Kess)




End file.
